260 LABRADOR 
herd sold by us to Mr. Mayson Beeton of Grand Lake and 
remained with his animals two days, coming in and out of 
his corral with the rest, while three of his tame ones wan- 
dered off for three weeks with their wild cousins and then 
returned, as if preferring the less strenuous life. 
Encouraged by all we had heard, we set to work, and col- 
lected a sum of $10,000 by public subscription, chiefly by 
the help of the Boston Transcript, and in addition the Cana- 
dian Federal Department of Agriculture voted $5000. The 
task of purchasing and shipping the deer and of securing 
their herders was intrusted to Mr. Francis Wood of London, 
England, who voluntarily proceeded to Norway and Lap- 
land for the purpose. Three hundred deer were eventually 
purchased. Of these, two hundred and fifty were does of 
an age to bear fawns in the spring, and fifty were stags; 
they were to be delivered on the beach at Altenfjord on 
the north coast of Lapland in lat. 71° north, at a cost of 
$8.50 apiece.t A contract for thirty tons of the moss 
known as reindeer moss, or Iceland moss (rangifereria), was 
arranged. The moss was to be gathered and stored on 
the highlands to await transport by the deer themselves, 
on the pulkas, or native sledges. The contract with the 
Laplander agent ran as follows:— 
“Tsrael N. Mella acknowledges hereby having sold to Mr. 
Francis H. Wood, of London, 250 female reindeer, three 
years old, sound, fresh, prime deer, for a sum of 30 Kr. 
each delivered on board the ship in Bugten, Altenfjord; 
also 25 tame four-year-old drawing deer for the sum of 
1 On board the steamer ready for sea, they cost $16.74 per head; 
landed in Labrador, they cost $51.49 per head. 
