REINDEER GRAZING INVESTIGATIONS IN ALASKA 
15 
warrant adoption (pi. 7). Branding, usually on the flank, is now 
being- initiated and will undoubtedly become a more general method. 
A brand law for Alaska recently adopted provides for the marking 
or branding of reindeer and the registration of the brand or mark. 
NATURE OF THE RANGE 
RANGE BELTS 
There are three distinct range belts of different uses: (1) 
The immediate coast region, including the islands; (2) the far- 
interior country; and (3) an intermediate region, which may be 
termed the inland-coast or coastal-valley belt. In the coast region, 
l-Entrance driveway 
2-Movable wire-burlap fence 
3-Entrance hook or lead«a,y into holding pens 
4-Holding pocket 
5-Holdmg pen 
6-Chute 30'long;8"treadatexif 
7- Swing gate 
" "Sliding gate 
-Sliding gate 6'x 8 
10-Swing gate 5'x 5' 
11 -Wall. waist high 
12-Platform 6" high 
Fig. 3. — Highly successful corral of the chute type. It is important that the leadway 
into the holding pens be constructed on the side of the corral to meet the direction 
in which the herd mills. The movable wire-burlap fence is very useful in cutting off 
bunches of stock from the main herd 
the summer range of mostly tundra flats lies immediately along the 
coast, and the winter range lies inland on the coast uplands of hills 
and mountains. In the far interior the grazing lands are in the 
mountains, and the reindeer usualh T summer on the mountain tops 
and winter either on adjoining protected and favorably exposed areas 
or on lower ground near timber line. In the intermediate, coastal- 
valley belt, as in the Kuskokwim, Yukon, and Kobuk River Valleys, 
the reindeer may summer either along the valley flats and bench 
lands or on the mountain tops, and winter in the middle, usually 
timbered, zone between the upper and lower elevations. 
The chief factors determining the seasonal range areas are (1) 
forage, (2) exposure, (3) the fly pest, (4) the physical character of 
