THE CAMEL OF THE FROZEN DESERT 



By Carl J. Lomen 



With Photographs by Lomen Brothers, Nome, Alaska 



WHEX the circus comes to town 

 and the steam calliope, calling 

 with its raucous but seductive 

 voice to old and young alike, allures the 

 crowds to gaze in wonder at the grand 

 parade, it is the camels and elephants 

 that sweep the youngsters along crowded 

 pavements in a wave of deepest interest. 

 Xot even Sheba's queen, enthroned in 

 state upon her regal car which milk-white 

 horses draw, and dressed in jeweled robes 

 that scintillate with rainbow beams, can 

 prevent the tan-cheeked, barefoot boy or 

 his urban counterpart from serving as an 

 escort for those awkward beasts whose 

 very shuffling tread bespeaks a haughty 

 dignity. Strong iron bars imprison Leo 

 and his tawny mate, but the camels can 

 be studied at first hand. 



What matters it that somewhere be- 

 neath the Syrian sun or beside the storied 

 walls of far Peking the philosophic ship 

 of the sandy desert calmly chews his cud 

 unnoticed by the passing throng, or that 

 in tropical Ceylon or India the plodding 

 pachyderm belongs to the Labor Union 

 rather than to the Players' Club? The 

 commonplace has only to be transported 

 to another clime to make it interesting. 



the alaskan's ox, sheep, and horse 

 in one 



Xot less interesting than the camel of 

 the Sahara or the Gobi is the reindeer, 

 the camel of the frozen desert in Amer- 

 ica's farthest north. The average Amer- 

 ican probably considers the reindeer only 

 as the picturesque feature in an other- 

 wise featureless Arctic landscape, or as 

 the draft animal for a fur-clad foreigner 

 with high cheek-bones and matted hair. 



But to Alaskans, Eskimos and whites 

 alike, reindeer are today what lowing 

 kine are to the dairy-farmers of Holland, 

 humble sheep to the Australian wool- 

 raiser, or bulky shorthorns to the Texas 

 cowman — utility untinctured with ro- 

 mance. 



Within a single generation, "Cupid" and 

 "Vixen" and "Comet" and "Prancer," 

 those semi-mythological companions of 

 ruddy Saint Xick which spring into 

 action with the very first remembered 

 syllables of the famous Christmas poem, 

 have become the staple live stock of the 

 Far Xorthwest of the American conti- 

 nent. Santa Claus may use a motor 

 truck or even an airplane in making his 

 city deliveries, but in Alaska the reindeer 

 is coming into its own. 



FIRST REINDEER IMPORTED 2? YEARS AGO 



In Europe and Asia the reindeer was 

 domesticated in prehistoric times. Xot 

 so in America, w r here this species of the 

 deer family, the Cervidce, were known as 

 caribou, and are still so known, to dis- 

 tinguish them from the domesticated and 

 imported animal. 



The first importation, consisting of 

 only 162 reindeer, was landed at Teller, 

 Alaska, on Independence Day, 1892.* 

 During that year and the decade follow- 

 ing, 1,118 more were imported from Si- 

 beria and landed on the shores of Port 

 Clarence Bay. The reindeer imported 

 from Norway in 1898 were all draft ani- 

 mals, steers, and are now extinct. 



From the outset the deer thrived, and 

 as the number increased, other herds 

 were formed from the mother herd at 

 Teller. Roaming the frozen wastes north 

 and south, from Point Barrow to the 

 Alaskan Peninsula, there are today more 

 than a hundred herds, aggregating about 

 160,000 deer. It is estimated that during 

 this period more than 100.000 have been 

 killed for food and skins : so that in less 

 than thirty years the increase has been 

 more than two hundred fold. 



Although the Alaskan reindeer indus- 

 try is still in its infancy, it is rapidly be- 

 coming firmly established. 



*See "Reindeer in Alaska, "bv Gilbert Grosve- 

 nor, in The Geographic for April, 1903. 



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