REINDEER FOR LABRADOR 253 
prosecuted to a marvellously successful issue by the United 
States government. These experiments have conclusively 
proved the adaptability of this particular animal to do- 
mestication in the Arctic for the service of mankind. Along 
the sea-shore, especially, the natives have readily taken to 
the task of propagating and using them, and already whole 
settlements are being supplied from these new herds. One 
Eskimo woman surnamed “ Reindeer Mary”’ has even risen 
to wealth, owning many hundreds of deer, and, what is more 
important, shown herself capable in this way of consider- 
able intellectual development. She thus indicates one line 
at any rate, along which the natives of Alaska may hope 
to escape extinction through the increasing contact and 
competition with the advancing white men. 
Few other animals on the earth’s surface offer as much 
to man with so little outlay. With scarcely any aid, 
races of men can subsist on what these beasts alone can 
provide. For transport they have been shown, under 
right circumstances, to be able to compete with the Eskimo 
dog in speed and endurance. On the Alaskan tundra, 
where the snowfall is much like that of Labrador, they have 
been an unqualified success. On journeys they can find 
their own food by the way — an item most important, for 
the dogs are obliged to carry this additional, and by no 
means inconsiderable, burden with them. Reindeer are 
now used not only for packing over open land uncovered 
with snow in summer-time, when dogs are entirely useless, 
but they are in regular use for running the United States 
mail service in the depth of an Arctic winter. Geldings 
are said to be far more readily trained to harness than 
stags, and are easier to keep in good physical condition. 
