an LABRADOR 
ing themselves far north of the Arctic Circle, in spite of the 
almost Stygian darkness of the long winters and in spite 
of the minimal food-supply available, shows that even 
when Nature displays the very least generosity, animals of 
this family possess a phenomenal fitness to survive. More- 
over, it has also been shown by countless experiments with 
many species of animals, that by careful treatment of those 
introduced into new environments, traits can in time be 
developed that will enable the species to flourish in the 
new home; whereas even had they been able to reach the 
very same region in the ordinary course of nature, they 
would, unaided by such development, not have persisted. 
The natural distribution of the reindeer is almost entirely 
limited to the subarctic regions. Wet and cold offer no 
terrors to them; the humblest lichen affords them a source 
of nutriment; only the very deepest snowfalls can prevent 
their digging down to their food-supply; and they can 
range and multiply so far north that even their one enemy, 
the timber-wolf, cannot reach them. The wonderful hoofs 
of these members of the ungulate family are faced with an 
ever renewing hard exterior, which, like the beaver’s tooth, 
is only made sharper by being used, and which enables 
the deer to cut down even through snow protected with an 
icy covering. At the same time they possess large dew- 
claws, or hooflets, which increase the spread of their large 
splay-feet, and enable the deer to travel and escape danger 
over snow in which any of our common cattle would be 
hopelessly engulfed and destroyed. 
The experiments of introducing domestic reindeer into 
Alaska were first undertaken by the famous missionary, 
Dr. Sheldon Jackson, and have been since assumed and 
