11'^^ 



124 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 



States Revenue-Cutter Service, to their relief, juid to the fact that on 



account of the impo.s.sibility of transporting food supplies in suflBcient 



quantities across the thousand miles of trackless, Arctic wilderness in 



winter, a decision was reached to secure the domestic reindeer at Cape 



Prince of Wales and Cape Rodney, drive them across the countrv to 



Point Barrow and slaughter them for food as occasion required, I 



respectfully (;AW)^tention to the fact that the herds found at the places 



. viXtcutioued were respectively the property of the American Missionary 



' ^Association at Cape Prince of Wales and the Eskuno herders at Cape 



Rodney, the Government contingents which had furnished the nucleus 



of these herds bavitig Ix-en previously withdrawn in accordance with 



V 1 tiljt^ iiifjtniction^ given to this Bureau b}^ the honorable the Secretary 



^ Uf tiie Interior. 



Lieutenant Jarvis was itistructed to pledge the Government to return 



their owners a num])er of deer equal to the number taken, with the 



Mitilaii /ofHhe hatui-al increase — 220 to Cape Rodney and 432 to Cape 



Prince of AVales, making 652 deer to be returned by the Government. 



It had been intended to supply the 652 deer required from the pur- 

 chase of a large herd in Siberia. Extraordinary preparations had been 

 made to obtain at least a thousand deer from the purchasing station 

 which had been established on St. Lawrence Ba}', Siberia. The result, 

 however, was disappointing inasnnich as only 161 were obtained in 

 this way. This numl^er was left at Cape Prince of Wales in August, 

 1898, leaving 491 still to be replaced. 



It was found impossible to maintain a purchasing station in Siberia 

 unless the corps of employees at the station is sufficiently large to pro- 

 tect itself against marauding natives. Experience has also shown that 

 purchases of deer may be made by a Government vessel communicat- 

 ing with the shores of Siberia, but the results of this method have also 

 proved unsatisfactory owing to the shortness of the open season. 

 Accordingly it is important that some better method of procuring the 

 deer shall be devised. 



On the shores of Okhotsk Sea and along the coast of Kamchatka, 

 accessi>)le to the reindeer country of Siberia, are a number of Russian 

 triiding posts, and it may be found practicable to arrange with Russian 

 merchants to purchase reindeer in Siberia and either deliver them to 

 the Unit(Hl States Government on the Alaskan side or have them ready 

 in herds at Siberian seaports for transportation across to Alaska by a 

 United States vessel. 



I am imf ormed that the winter ice breaks up first along the Siberian 

 side of Bering Sea, and that the whalers who visit those waters are 

 accustomed to pass along the Kamchatka coast on their way farther 

 north. The cutter Bear, which is usually sent on the Bering Sea 

 cruise, by sailing a few weeks earlier than usual, could make the coast 

 of Asia, in the region of Vladivostock, and by following up the coast 

 with the disappearance of the ice reach its cruising ground in Bering 



