106 HOOFED ANIMALS 
beneficial and humane proceeding toward the Eskimo tribes 
of western Alaska to import a large number of domestic 
Reindeer from Siberia, and teach the natives how to care 
for and use them. Through the heroic efforts of Dr. Sheldon 
Jackson, General Agent of Education in Alaska, this advice 
was promptly followed, under the auspices of the Bureau of 
Education; but the first fund of $2,000 came from private 
sources, and was expended in 1892-3. The initial Con- 
gressional appropriation, of $6,000, was expended in 1894, 
but since 1899 the amount granted annually has been 
$25,000. 
From 1892 to 1902, 1,580 Reindeer were imported from 
Siberia and 144 from Lapland, from which 6,116 fawns were 
born in Alaska. Dr. Jackson states that “the animals born 
in Alaska are developing into larger and stronger animals than 
their parents.”” The rumors of alleged deterioration through 
“inbreeding” are totally incredible, and should receive no 
attention whatever. 
The Reindeer experiment has been wisely conducted, on 
good business principles, and is an unqualified success. There 
are forty-nine Reindeer stations, extending from Point Bar- 
row, on the Arctic Ocean, to the Alaskan Peninsula opposite 
Kadiak Island. The Laplanders who were taken to Alaska 
to educate the natives in the care and use of Reindeer did 
their work conscientiously, and the Eskimo have eagerly 
embraced the opportunity to acquire a domestic animal, good 
for use and for food, to take the place of the vanished walrus 
and Barren Ground caribou. 
The recently completed tabulation of the returns contained 
