THE ASIATIC REINDEER AND ELK 
Chukchis, few of whom possess reindeer.) So numerous are these animals 
that it is not unusual to find 10,000 in one herd, and individuals often 
possess 2,000 or 3,000 reindeer. All of these people are nomads trading 
with the Russians on the west, the Koriaks in the southern mountains and 
east across the Bering Straits to North-West Alaska. 
These reindeer of the Chukchis seem to be quite a distinct race occu- 
pying a place between the small Lena variety and big “ stocky ” races 
inhabiting the mountains and forests of Kamchatka and Okhotsk. 
The reindeer of the Koriaks who live between Kamchatka and Chukchi 
land probably present characters intermediate between the races found 
to the north and the south. 
A. Nordenskiold, in describing the visit of two of his men to a camp 
of the Reindeer -Chukchis, gives a pleasant picture of the affection of 
the owners for their deer. He says (“ The Voyage of the Vega,” vol. ii, 
pp. 15-16): 
“ After for the most part a sleepless night, we rose at half-past six 
next morning. When we came out of the tent we saw all the reindeer 
advancing in a compact troop. At the head was an old reindeer with 
large horns, that went forward to his master, who had in the mean- 
time gone to meet the herd, and bade him good -morning by gently 
rubbing his nose against his master’s hands. While this was going 
on the other reindeer stood drawn up in well-ordered ranks, like 
the crew in divisions on board a man-of-war. The owner then went 
forward and saluted every reindeer; they were allowed to stroke his 
hands with their noses. He on his part took every reindeer by the horn 
and examined it in the most careful way. After the inspection was 
ended, at a sign given by the master, the whole herd wheeled round and 
returned in closed ranks, with the old reindeer in front, to the previous 
day’s pasture.” 
[The date of this report is March 17, 1879, and one at least of the reindeer 
is reported as possessing “ large horns.” This is surely a mistake, for at 
that date the horns would be very small. Adult males shed their horns 
early in November.] 
Lieut. Nordquist, in a report to Nordenskiold (“ Voyage of the Vega,” 
vol. ii, p. 45), mentions “ wild ” reindeer in the mountain region, fifteen or 
twenty miles south of Yinretlin, where they are not common. A few, 
according to the Chukchis, remain in winter on the hills near the coast, 
whilst the greater number migrate southwards at this season. 
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