92 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



most reindeer lauds and a humid climate seldom suits reindeer. The 

 failure to acclimatise reindeer in the Orkneys and the Scottish highlands, 

 many years ago, was attributed, no doubt rightly, to the dampness of the 

 climate, for the food supply was entirely adequate. Lastly, the wolves 

 of Baffin Island made serious inroads on the new flocks quite unprepared 

 to defend themselves from this unknown enemy. The wolf is a far more 

 serious enemy than man to the reindeer and more effective in reducing 

 numbers. 



There is no reason to suppose that the domestication of reindeer, 

 starting with Siberian stock and gradually introducing the American 

 caribou, will be anything but successful in most parts of the Canadian 

 tundra, in the rich pasture lands of western Greenland, and the more 

 restricted areas of Spitsbergen. All these regions have supported vast 

 numbers of reindeer in the past, and should do so again if excessive 

 hunting is curbed, wise game laws instituted, and the wolf exterminated, 

 as Canada is endeavouring to do. Already the killing of reindeer in 

 Spitsbergen is totally prohibited until 1934, the first enactment of Norway's 

 rule in her Arctic possession. 13 



Alaska is said to have pasturage for 4,000,000 reindeer. Basing his 

 estimate on this figure, Stefansson calculates that the Arctic tundras as 

 a whole are capable of supporting about 100,000,000 reindeer and perhaps 

 five times as many musk-ox. This is probably an over-sanguine estimate, 

 for it must be remembered that the Alaskan herds are mainly in the more 

 fertile valleys of the south and south-west, which have few, if any, equals 

 in fertility in the tundras farther north ; but even if we reduce the 

 numbers considerably, say by as much as 50 per cent., there remains a 

 possible food production from the waste Arctic lands equivalent to some 

 1,000,000,000 sheep, or more than ten times the total number of sheep 

 that Australia now supports. 



This would, of course, take many years to accomplish, and naturally 

 will not occur until the temperate lands of the world are more fully 

 occupied than at present. But gradually as world population multiplies 

 and food production has to be increased, the lands that are not fit for 

 cereal growth will command attention by their possibilities for pasturage. 

 It is a geographical axiom that the herder must always give way to the 

 tiller of the soil with his more intensive occupation. With the extension 

 of dry farming, there seems little likelihood of any considerable areas of 

 temperate lands in the long run being left to pastoral pursuits. But the 

 Arctic tundras are entirely unsuited for agriculture by unfitness of soil 

 and shortness of summer for ripening the grain. Their advantage as 

 pasture land is that the farmer can never displace the herdsman. As the 

 world's supply of beef decreases, the supply of venison and musk-ox flesh 

 will come more into demand. 



A further important aspect of Arctic pasturage has been suggested in 

 the supply of leather and wool. The musk-ox wool has been shown to have 

 the qualities of merino and to be softer than cashmere, but it is unlikely 

 that it will be possible to shear flocks that have to resist the rigours of a 



ls Norwegian proposals for game laws are published in Naturfredning i Norge, 

 Arsberetning, 1926 (Oslo, 1920). See also Scottish Geog. Mag., May 1926. 



