VALUE OF DOMESTIC REINDEER 
The United States government has attempted to repair this 
deficiency by introducing large numbers of Lapp reindeer among 
the Alaskans, and the experiment is proving successful. 
“The inhabitants of Lapland and Finland, as well as many tribes of 
northern Siberia, have from time immemorial kept the reindeer as a do- 
mesticated animal. The Koreki have herds of forty or fifty pomestic 
thousand, the Laplanders, however, have rarely more than Reindeer. 
five hundred. The latter migrate with their herds, giving them most free- 
dom in September, when the stock is improved by the admixture of wild 
elements. Just before that is the 
usual slaughter time, as the flesh, 
especially of the males, acquires 
an unpleasant flavor at the time 
of the rut. The animals serve 
not only as food, but the hides, 
horns, and sinews are all con- 
verted into useful articles of 
clothing, or implements of various 
kinds. The rich, creamlike milk, 
obtained with some difficulty from 
the animals, is made during the 
summer months into small cheeses 
—an important food-article with 
these northern people. It is 
chiefly in Lapland and Norway 
that the reindeer is used as a 
draught beast, and then they 
are only required to pull light, boatlike sledges over the snow. In Kam- 
chatka, however, they are saddled and ridden by the natives, a pad over 
the withers serving as a saddle, and a long staff acting as a substitute for 
the stirrup in mounting. Pack saddles, carrying from seventy-five to one 
hundred pounds, are also placed on the shoulders. The Tungus have 
very often a train of some six to twelve reindeer acting as beasts of burden.” ® 
LAPLAND REINDEER. 
Our common American deer remain to close the list of this 
important family. They differ as a group from all those of the 
Old World in skull structure, and form three groups, the first 
of which includes the white-tailed and black-tailed deer of the 
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