REINDEER IN ALASKA. 17 
the Territory (54,899) only about 25,000 live within the area to 
which reindeer grazing applies, and only about 15,000 within the im- 
mediate reindeer districts now holding herds. The Eskimo and 
Indian population alone is about 25,000. 
The reindeer of the Eskimos furnish meat and skins for the most 
part to the owners, but a portion of the surplus is sold in local min- 
ing camps or in white settlements. The Lapps and other whites 
likewise have a similar sale for a limited portion of their surplus, 
but for the most part the Lapp has depended upon a market for his 
reindeer in the sale of breeding stock to other whites. 
In marketing locally the reindeer are usually driven to the town 
or camp where sale is to be made and there slaughtered. Usually 
long drives are necessary, and they are generally undertaken in the 
early part or middle of the winter. The white man is largely a 
beginner in the industry and is looking toward its larger develop- 
ment and to an outside market, the opening up of which has just 
begun (PI. VIII, Fig. 2). 
Transportation in northern Alaska during the winter is almost en- 
tirely by dog team (PL I, Fig. 2) and in summer by boat. Horses 
are used to some extent in the interior. The new railroad between 
Seward and Fairbanks should prove a vastly important factor in 
establishing the reindeer industry in the interior. Aside from the 
railroad, transportation between the United States and northern 
Alaska is by boat and limited to the summer and fall months. Dur- 
ing the winter most of Bering Sea is covered with pack ice, so that 
navigation is impossible. 
Development of regular markets and better means of transporta- 
tion and marketing are particularly necessary at this time to place 
the reindeer industry on a proper basis, and the establishment of a 
definite cash market for his surplus stock will greatly encourage the 
Eskimo as well as the white man to adopt improved methods of 
management. 
BY-PRODUCTS. 
Up to the present time by-products from reindeer have been to a 
large extent neglected. Some hides, which are used in the manufac- 
ture of leather goods, have been exported, and in a few instances the 
horns have been shipped to be used for making knife handles and 
similar articles. The hair is of value for stuffing life preservers and 
filling horse collars, but has been little used for these purposes. In 
the slaughterhouses the blood and viscera have been thrown away, 
whereas they might be used for making meal for clog food. There 
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