INTEODUCTION OF DOMFSTIC KEINDEER INTO ALASKA. 129 



Siberian to the Alaskan coast. Application has been made t(j this 

 Department for a saitaMie vessel to do this work. There is but one 

 v'essel under ]nj control that would at all answer the purpose, and as 

 there is imperative need for that vessel in other directions, I have 

 suggested to the Secretary of the Interior that the U. S. S. Theth^ 

 now presumed to be out of commission at the Marc Island Navy-Yard, 

 might be obtained for temporary service, I have, therefore, the honor 

 to request that, if the appropriation above referred to be made by 

 Congress, you will turn the Thdlx, with boats and equipments, over 

 to this Department to be used temporarily as a revenue cutter and for 

 the purpose above indicated, with the understanding that she shall be 

 returned to the Navy Department upon the completion of the service 

 mentioned, and that all expenses for repairs, etc., be borne by this 

 Department. 1 have respectfully to request an early reply. 

 Respectfully, yours, 



L. J. Gage, Sec/'etary. 

 The Secretary of the Navy. 



Treasury Department, 



Office of the Secretary, 

 Washington, D. C, Feb ma nj 23, 1899. 



Sir: It will be remembered that in the fall of 18U7, 8 whaling ves- 

 sels, with more than 400 men, were imprisoned in the Arctic ice near 

 Point Barrow, Alaska, and not being provisioned for a long stay the 

 crews were in danger of starvation. The attention of the President 

 was called to the danger of the whalers, and at a Cabinet meeting the 

 Secretary of the Treasury was directed to send relief. Accordingly, 

 the Revenue Cutter Bear was fitted out and dispatched to the north. 

 Near Cape Vancouver, Bering Sea, a small party, consisting of First 

 Lieut. D. H. Jarvis, Second Lieut. H P. Bertholf, and Surg. S. J. 

 Call, of the Revenue-Cutter Service, were put ashore in December, 

 1897, to make an overland journey to Point Barrow. 



As it was impossible to carry ordinary provisions to Point Barrow, 

 a thousand miles across that Arctic land in winter. Lieutenant Jarvis 

 had been instructed to procure, if possible, the herds of domestic 

 reindeer owned by private parties at Cape Prince of Wales and Point 

 Rodney, drive them to Point Barrow, slaughter them, and issue as 

 rations. Upon the arrival of Lieutenant eTarvis he found that the 

 owners of the reindeer would not let them go except upon condition 

 that the same number of reindeer, with the natural increase of fawns, 

 should be returned to them in the summer of 1898. He therefore 

 pledged the Government to return to the several owners 043 reindeer 

 the following season. 



S. Doc. 245 9 



