286 NATUKAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS IN ALASKA. 



only biive a few of them the next. The fall is usually the time for this movement, and they gener- 

 ally advance against the wind. Their sense of smell is very acute, and they are thus warned of 

 danger ahead. They follow their leader in a long irregular file, and are like a lot of sheep in their 

 blind determination to continue in his footsteps, even in the face of an enemy. 



One ingenious method the Eskimo practice in hunting them is as follows : When two natives 

 find a herd of Ecindeer they get to the leeward of them, and then if no cover offers a good oppor- 

 tunity for stalking the game, the hunters start off directly for the deer, and in plain sight, except 

 that one hunter walks as close behind the other as possible, keeping step with him. The deer soon 

 spy them and start to make a wide circuit about the hunters. The latter now swerve from their 

 course just enough to appear to be continually heading oft' the deer. The latter soon change their 

 walk to a trot and from this to a run, as the liuuters still appear to be heading them off. As soon 

 as the deer start to run the rear hunter drops behind the first knoll, and the one in front runs to 

 head the deer off, but they soon pass him, and are almost certain to pass within gunshot of the 

 concealed hunter, and sometimes almost run over him before they see him, they are watching the 

 other one so closely. The concealed hunter now fires into them and the other hunter hides himself 

 at once, and the chances are greatly in favor of the frightened herd ruuniug within gunshot of 

 him. Several deer are frequently killed in this way out of a small herd. 



Strong fences are sometimes built across the lower end of a rocky gorge which opens into a 

 valley above, and then a drive is made when a herd wanders into the valley. In this way several 

 huudred are known to have been taken at once. In a case of this kind, every deer that is inclosed 

 is killed, although only a fraction of the number can be utilized. They are also snared by strong 

 rawhide nooses which are set among clumps of bushes frequented by them so that their antlers 

 become entangled while browsing, and they are held until the hunter comes. 



About the headwaters of the Yukon the Indians build a wide V^liaped fence with a pound or 

 iuclosure at the small end into which they make successful drives whenever the deer are suffi- 

 ciently numerous. 



When Mr. Dall came down the Yukon in the spring of 1SG7, he saw over four thousand skins 

 of reindeer fawns hanging up in a village near Auvik, and at i)resent scarcely hulf a dozen deer, 

 old and young, are taken yearly in that district. 



The skins taken in summer are valued at about one dollar each among the fur traders, who 

 buy them in one part of the country and trade them for furs in other parts. The summer skins 

 are softer and have finer fur than the winter skins, and are, consequently, more in demand for fur 

 clothing. Winter skins have long, coarse, and brittle fur, and the skin itself is heavier and of a 

 poorer quality than those taken during the summer months. Summer skins are covered with 

 dark-brown fur, sometimes shaded with dark chestnut, while the winter fur is brownish-gray with 

 the light color predominating. The fawns in spring are covered with a pretty coat of yellowish, 

 or buff'y fawn color. 



Reindeer flesh is fine grained and slightly dry, but better than ordinary deer meat. 



So far as I could learn, none of these animals are, or ever have been, domesticated on the 

 American side of Bering Straits. On the Asiatic side of the straits, up to the very water-line, the 

 people estimate the wealth of themselves or neighbors by the size of their reindeer herds, and the 

 people who, from lack of these, are forced to live in villages on the coast and to subsist on the prod- 

 uct of the sea, are looked upon as an inferior class, of but little consequence. In rare instances 

 melanistic skins of the wild deer were seen, but none were seen showing any signs of albinism. 

 This is a little singular, when white and piebald deer are so common among the tame herds across 

 the straits. 



Eangifer TAKANDtJS CARIBOU (Kerr). Woodland Reindeer; Caribou. 



BuKjrapMcal notes. — The fur traders of the Upper Yukon frequently told me of a reindeer 

 which frequented the wooded country about the headwaters of that stream, and which was larger 

 and darker than the deer found on the barrens and along the coast country. The only evidence I 

 ever saw to corroborate this consisted of a number of summer skins which the traders from the 

 Uliper Yukon had with them and were using for beds 



