128 The National Geographic Magazine 



From a photograph by R. N. Hawle}', M. D. 



Reindeer on the Siberian Beach, Hobbled, waiting to be L,oaded on the Bear for 



Transportation to Alaska 



For 20 years the revenue cutter Bear has been engaged in Arctic work. It has saved the 

 lives of hundreds of wrecked whalers, and contributed more to the comfort and safet}- of the 

 settlements along the Alaskan coast than any vessel in the service. 



no steamships in which to pursue them; 

 the walrus, which formerly had been 

 seen in herds of thousands, w T ere disap- 

 pearing; the seals were becoming exter- 

 minated, and in winter the Eskimo had 

 to tramp 15 to 20 miles out on the ice 

 before he could catch one. The modern 

 hunter, with his steam launches and 

 rapid-fire guns, had found the whales, 

 walrus, and seals such easy prey that he 

 was ruthlessly destroying them. Also 

 the wild caribou, that the native had 

 easily captured before, had been fright- 

 ened away and was rarely seen. 



Not only was the Eskimo losing his 

 food, but what in an arctic climate is no 

 less important, his clothing as well. The 

 whalebone, the ivory tusks of the wal- 

 rus, the seal skin, and the oil had given 

 him means of barter with the Siberian 

 traders across the Strait, from whom 

 he obtained reindeer skins to keep him 

 warm in winter. 



Dr Jackson saw that unless something 

 was done at once the United States 

 would have to choose between feeding 

 the 20,000 and more natives or letting 

 them starve to death. The latter course 

 was impossible; the former rather ex- 

 pensive, as supplies w r ould have to be 

 carried some 3,000 miles from Seattle. 

 The more enterprising Siberian, living 

 on the opposite side of the Strait under 

 practically the same conditions of arctic 

 cold, got along very nicely, as he had 

 great herds of domestic reindeer to fall 

 back upon when game was scarce. The 

 same moss which covered so many thou- 

 sands of miles of the plains of arctic 

 Siberia was seen everywhere in Alaska. 

 The tame reindeer of Siberia was prac- 

 tically the same animal as the wild 

 caribou of Alaska, changed by being 

 domesticated for centuries. Could not 

 the Eskimo be made self-supporting by 

 giving him reindeer herds of his own ? 



