62 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 



day hours for travel. With the shelter eahins well built 20 miles 

 apart on the route, and with relay stations every 50 miles, the journey 

 from Dawson City to Bemiet, at the railroad terminus, 40 miles from 

 Skagway, in the Klondike, could be performed by a United States and 

 Canada express company in six or seven days; from Dawson City to 

 Circle City in three days; another three days to the mouth of the Tanana; 

 three days more to Nulato, on the lower great bend of the Yukon, 

 and two days more to St. jSIichael, or two weeks and a half from St. 

 Michael to Skagway. Across the ice in winter Cape Prince of Wales 

 is three days' distance from St. Michael (traveling by relays night and 

 day), and Point Hope seven days, and Point Barrow twelve days via 

 Cape Prince of Wales. Cape Prince of Wales, at Bering Strait, could 

 be reached in three weeks from Bennet by reindeer express. But the 

 first journeys, performed without relays, and with imperfect knowl- 

 edge of the best trails, will require daih' intervals of rest, and it will 

 take a week to do what will by and by be done in three days. 



The reindeer imported from Siberia numbered 554 up to 1895. In 

 the years 1806 and 1897 none were added from Siberia, but the 554 had 

 increased to 1,460 by June 30, 1897. In 1898 161 were obtained from 

 Siberia, and although 180 had been used for food and iM) more had been 

 lost in the expedition to Point Barrow for the relief of the sailors 

 imprisoned in the ice, the total head surviving October 1, 1898, num- 

 bered 1,918. This number is swelled to 2,062 by the addition of 144 

 deer turned over from the War Department as the survivors of the 

 herd purchased in Lapland for the relief of the miners reported to be 

 starving in the Klondike mines. 



The conditions of northern, central, and western Alaska have been 

 fully described above. The prol)lem of southeast Alaska is a quite 

 simple one in comparison. It is in constant communication with the 

 Department of the Interior at Washington throughout the 3-ear. It 

 lies entireh' in the region covered l)y trees and no reindeer moss grows 

 there, hence the reindeer question does not concern southeast Alaska; 

 but there are gold mining, salmon fishing, and the fitting out of adven- 

 turers bound for the mines of central Alaska. 



