Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1891-11-11
REINDEER FOR ALASKA.
The Movement for Introducing These
Animals Into the Northwest.

The Movement for Introducing These
Animals Into the Northwest.
nj. A. Healy, of the revenue cutter
Bear. declares in his report TO the Treas
ury Department that the introduction OF
reindeer into Alaska is the most impor
tant question before that Territory
Alaska has many important questions &c
consider. including land titles, fishing and
mining industries. boundaries, and char.
liable institutions; but the reindeer is
an embodiment of food, clothing, and
transportation, and accordingly repre-.
sents the supply of primal wants OF
pioneers and settlers.
The reindeer may fairly be called the
most valuable of all animals to people in
the Arctic regions, where it attains Its
greatest size. In Siberia it is both rid.
den and driven by the natives. 1t car
draw a weight of from $50 to 800 pounds,
including that of the sledge; it can make
or 10 miles an hour for very long dis.
tances, and more than I50 miles in from
le to 20 hours. Probably the perfection
of its use is seen in Lapland, where il
is often the chief possession of the ma.
uves. The rich man is very often the
one who has the largest herd of reindeer,
and the animals also cost little to keep,
since even in winter they find their own
food. chiefly in the lichens, for which
they root under the snow. They fulfill
a great variety of uses. The flesh fur.
nishes toothsome meat, although the ami
mails are often too valuable to kill merely
for food; the milk is of course used and
is greatly priced; from the skins not only
clothing and shoes are made, but tents
and bedding. 1t is evident, therefore,
that the recent movement to introduce
this animal into Alaska is of the highest
interest to that Territory.
As TO the ability TO carry out this plan
we have precedent in the case of Ice
land, where the reindeer was first intro
duced by Governor Thodal in 1770 1t
soon began to thrive there as elsewhere
in the far north. But it is said to be a
fact that while great herds are found in
the most inaccessible parts of the inte-
riOr of Iceland, they are reached with
difficulty by the hunter, and the animals
are very wild and of little use to the in
habitants. However, DR.. Sheldon Jack
son, the Government agent of education
in Alaska, who has already begun to in-
troduce the reindeer into that Territory,
believes that better results will be there
attained by the great care which it is
proposed to exercise. During the past
season he purchased at Senevine Straits
and Itslan, on the eastern coast of Siberia,
10 reindeer, paying for them about $3.50
worth of supplies in the form of guns,
ammunition, cloth, and tobacco. The
animals were sent to Amakuk and Ouna-
laska. Next year DIR. Jackson will en-
deavor to establish herd of reindeer in
the neighborhood of Fort Clarence, and
for this purpose has already contracted
for hundred of them. AS there are
scores of thousands of the animals in
eastern Siberia, there should be no diff
Guilty in procuring enough for experiment
tai purposes at reasonable cost.
Captain Healy in his report speaks of
buying eight tame reindeer, four of
which he brought away. He adds that
"the whites on the Yukon see in them
the solution of the problem they have
long been attempting to solve. Food
supply and climate are identical with
that of Siberia, and the visible supply of
moss, upon which reindeer principally
subsist, was found to be more abundant in
Alaska than at any place along the Siber-
ian coast" 1t is admitted that there are
obstacles to this undertaking, and some
Siberians predict that it will not succeed;
but its advantages are so great that earn
est efforts will be made to bring it about.