146 The National Geographic Magazine 



pushed on through the storms and bitter 

 cold of an Arctic winter, driving the 

 deer before them. After a journey of 

 three months and twelve days, on March 

 29, 1898, they reached the destitute 

 whalers, just in time to save them from 

 great suffering and death. 



In heroism, pluck, and endurance the 

 journey of these men has rarely been 

 equaled. Congress voted its thanks to 

 the gallant rescuers and awarded them 

 special medals of honor, but in the ex- 

 citement aroused throughout the coun- 

 try by the rapid succession of events of 

 the Spanish- American war their work 

 was almost unnoticed. 



Since that time a reindeer herd has 

 been kept at Point Barrow so there is 

 no longer danger of ice-imprisoned 

 whalers perishing from starvation. The 

 experience also showed the faithfulness 

 of the Eskimo. Mr Lopp had left his 

 wife at his station, the only white per- 

 son among 400 natives,, but during his 

 absence of nearly five months she re- 

 ceived nothing but constant courtesy 

 and kindness from them. 



DEVELOPMENT OF ARCTIC AND SUB- 

 ARCTIC ALASKA DEPENDENT 

 ON THE REINDEER 



The original motive in bringing the 

 reindeer to Alaska was purely philan- 

 thropic — to give the native a permanent 

 food supply. 



Since then the discovery of large and 

 valuable gold deposits upon the streams 

 of arctic and subarctic Alaska has made 

 the reindeer a necessity for the white 

 man as well as for the Eskimo. Pre- 

 vious to the discovery of gold there was 

 nothing to attract the white settler to 

 that desolate region, but with the knowl- 

 edge of valuable gold deposits thousands 

 will there make their homes, and towns 

 and villages are already springing into 

 existence. 



But that vast region, with its perpet- 

 ual frozen subsoil, is without agricult- 

 ural resources. Groceries, breadstuffs, 



etc., must be procured from the outside. 

 Steamers upon the Yukon can bring 

 food to the mouths of the gold-bearing 

 streams, but the mines are often many 

 miles up these unnavigable streams. 

 Already great difficulty is experienced 

 in securing sufficient food by dog-train 

 transportation and the packing of the 

 natives. The miners need reindeer 

 transportation. 



Again, the development of the mines 

 and the growth of settlements upon 

 streams hundreds of miles apart neces- 

 sitate some method of speedy travel. 

 A dog team on a long journey will make 

 on an average from 15 to 20 miles a day, 

 and in some sections cannot make the 

 trip at all, because they cannot carry 

 with them a sufficient supply of food 

 for the dogs, and can procure none in 

 the country through which they travel. 

 To facilitate and render possible fre- 

 quent and speedy communication be- 

 tween these isolated settlements and 

 growing centers of American civiliza- 

 tion, where the ordinary roads of the 

 states have no existence and cannot be 

 maintained except at an enormous ex- 

 pense, reindeer teams that require no 

 beaten roads, and that at the close of a 

 day's work can be turned loose to for- 

 age for themselves, are essential. The 

 introduction of reindeer into Alaska 

 makes possible the development of the 

 mines and the support of a million 

 miners. 



The reindeer is to the far north what 

 the camel is to desert regions, the ani- 

 mal which God has provided and adapted 

 for the peculiar, special conditions which 

 exist. The greater the degree of cold, 

 the better the reindeer thrives. Last 

 winter a party with a reindeer team 

 made a day's journey with the temper- 

 ature at 73 degrees below zero. On a 

 long journey through an uninhabited 

 country a dog team cannot haul suffi- 

 cient provisions to feed themselves. A 

 deer with 200 pounds on the sled can 

 travel up and down the mountains and 



