Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1891-12-12
REINDEER FOR ALASKA.
The Movement for Introducing Thes
Animals Into the Northwest.

The Movement for Introducing Thes
Animals Into the Northwest.
NJ. A. Healy, of the revenue cutie
Bear. declares in his report to the Treas
ury Department that the introduction
reindeer into Alaska is the most impor
tant question before that TIE. ritory
Alaska has many important questions II
consider, including land titles, fishing ant
mining industries, boundaries, AMI char
table Institutions; but the reindeer
an embodiment of food, clothing, ant
transportation, and accordingly repre-
sents the supply of primal wants
pioneers and settlers.
The reindeer may fairly be called thu
most valuable of all animals to people il
the Arctic regions, where it attains it
greatest size. In Siberia it is both rid
den and driven by the natives. 1t car
draw a weight of from $50 to 300 pounds
including that of the sledge; it can make
9 or 10 miles an hour for very long dis
tances, and more than $50 miles in from
10 to 20 hours. Probably the perfection
of its use is seen in Lapland, where il
is often the chief possession of the ma
tives. 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 OWE
food, chiefly in me lichens, for which
they root under the snow. They fulfil
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 1910. 1t
soon began to thrive there as elsewhere
in the far north. But it is said to be
fact that while great herds are found iC
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, DIR. Sheldon Jack
soc, 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 lis
proposed to exercise. During the past
season he purchased at Senevine Straits
and Itshan, on the eastern coast of Siberia,
IL reindeer, paying for them about $l6G
worth of supplies in the form of guns,
ammunition, cloth, and tobacco. The
Iaska. Next year DR.. Jackson will en-.
leavor 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 a 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 4;
out its advantages are SO great that earn.
est efforts will be made to bring it about.