Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1889-09-05
REARING REINDEER.
An Important Occupation in tne
steppes of Siberia.

nearing anu teHuiuB reindeer Is par
excellence the profession ola Samoyede.
If not rich enough to possess herd of
his own he enters the service of the
owner of large herd, who keeps him
and his family in food and clothes and
gives him certain number of reindeer
calves per annum in return for his SER
vices. The servant thus lays the foun-
dation of herd of his own, and, if
lucky, can, after few years service,
set up on his own account. Luck, how
ever, plays a great part in this means
of livlihood, for rendering" is great
lottery. The animals are very liable to
n disease which corresponds to the
rinderpest in cattle, and which in day
or two will kill off herd of 600 or 700
deer. If this happens in the middle OF
the Tundra, the local name for these
great, bare arctic steppes, it pr baby
means death to the owner and his en-
tire family, rs they are left possibly
hundreds of versts from any human help,
without food and without means of To-
comotion. In my subsequent journey
I came upon the scene of one of these
not uncommon tragedies, and have al
ready witnessed more pathetic sight
than the halfstanding chooms sur
rounded by q few sledges and the other
poor possessions of the ill-fated owners
and scattered all around the bones aud
and horns of the pest-stricken herd.
The owners themselves had been subse-
Quently buried by some native passing
by, as we found their wooden box-like
graves on hill short way off. Though
the loss of the herd does not often prove
rs fatal rs this, to the owner it always
means material ruin, and saw good
instance of this ut Obdorsk, where l
came across a Samoyede, at one time
the owner of herd Of 1000 deer, rep
resenting roughly capital of $500,
content to work as laborer at 40 cop
ecks week. When successful, on the
other hand, the rearing of reindeer is a
most profitable occupation. When
clear of disease the herd is almost sure
to double in number year by year.
Their cost of maintanence is nil,
while they supply their owner with all
his essential wants, and with the pecun-
iary means for obtaining such luxuries
as are WITHIN his reach. Their hides
provide him with clothing and shelter
in the shape of his hide-covered choom;
their meat forms the staple of his food.
The skin of calf in raw condition
yields about three rubles; when very
young and dark, as much as five. The
skins of the older deer fetch about two.
With this circulating medium in his
pouch, the Samoyede buy the vodka and
other creature comforts his soul delights
in, or adorns his wife with tho spangles
and strips of colored cloth she so highly
prizes. But over and above all these
gifts which the mild reindeer presents
to his lord is the one which to the nomad
dominates and determ ines all the rest
that of locomotion. This industry, if so
it may be termed, necessarily implies
the nomad life pure and simple, the
Samoyedes pitching their tents where
ever reindeer moss is abundant, and
moving off as soon as their herds have
cropped the surrounding district bare.
In Winter the Samoyedes prefer to be in
the vicinity of forests, partly for the sake
of the wood which they neel for fuel
and for making new and tinkering up
old sledges, partly because the snow
here is not 30 deep as in the open Tun-
dra, and the deer cnn thus get more
easily at the moss Here also they trap
the white fox and ptarmigan, the wings
OF which have great sale. In Summer
they drive their herds into the Tundra,
over which n large portion of my journey
lay, and which may here take the OPP.
portunity to describe. The Tundra is q
messy marsh, slightly accentuated hero
and there with low hills, and sprinkled
with numerous shallow lakes not coll
nected with each other For miles and
miles the ground is SO marshy that ono
runs the risk of sinking up to ones mid
die II one attempts to walk over it.
Now and again one comes upon q spot
where the ground resembles Scotch
moor minus the heather, very splingy
moss with an occasional clump of low
willow brushwood. These spots the ma
tive makes for when, after his days
journey, he wishes to pitch his choom,
rs tho moss here grows thic'I and rich
and the brushwood affords the little fuel
he requires. Not tree, not rock,
breaks the monotony of the scene, aud
the greenish- brown color OF the Tundra,
losing itself in dull, gray sky, is as
dreary picture as the human eye can
we'll rost upon Murray's Magazine.