The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1901-11-29
REINDEER CARRY MAIL
Their Value Proved by Tests
Made In Alaska.
AN INTERESTING EXPERIMENT.

AN INTERESTING EXPERIMENT.
A Five Hundred Mile Race Through
the Snow and
Dog Teams Eriendship Between
These Animals and SfberInns.
American Efforts to Introduce the
Reindeer Into Alaska.
When reindeer were first proposed
TO. use in the mail service in Alaska,
the idea was ridiculed, says the New
York sun. Since then experiments
have demonstrated the animals value
for this purpose. The first test show'st
it's superiority over dog teams for tray.
cling through the snow.
A reindeer team with a Lapp driver
was selected to carry one of h mail
bags over the Nome route and TO re-
turn with the outgoing mail, the u
trip being about 500 miles. Two days
before the reindeer started three well
equipped dog teams set out. The route
lay through a country without road or
trail, and the conditions were as bad
as heavy snowfalls could make them.
EARLY on the fifth day out the rein
deer team caught up with the slowest
of the dog outfits in a stretch of soft
drifted snow. In this the dogs had
been stalled, and their desperate doun-
behring's had so wearied them that they
were making little progress. The rein
deer plowed through the drifts with
little difficulty. That afternoon they
passed the second dog team.
The Lapp brought his mail to it's des-
tination, rested his deer thirty hours,
started on the return trip and fifty
miles out met the foremost of his com.
petitors. Even more remarl ale was a
mail trip of 1,24O miles through a
trackless wilderness made by reindeer,
the teams making as much as ITO miles
a day under favorable conditions.
Now that the value of these animals
has beer fully established the United
States have become an importer and
breeder of stock and will bring in the
next few years thousands of reindeer
into their, northernward possession.
There nre now in Alaska eight herds
comprising about $500 head. BY Jan
uary this number will be increased
through importation to more than
5000.
At first the whites in Alaska were
not successful in handling the animals.
They are scarcely comprehensive by
the Caucasian. The reindeer is easily
frightened and easily offended, and it
is impossible to tell how he will behave
=. a..lo, o,. Copoo+;p,oc &, ho will rr1ch
at the offending person and strike him
down with his sharp, powerful fore
hoofs or endeavor to rip him open with
a quick descent Of his formidable ant
lers. Again he will balk, sulk and even
pine away.
Between the Siberian and the rein
deer there exists a sort of affinity. The
animal will obey his accustomed mas
ter when a white skinned man can dc
nothing with him. So a number OF
herders were brought over from Sibe
! ria and young Alaskan Eskimos put
, under them to learn the business. The
Alaskan natives have taken b great
est interest in the Introduction of the
reindeer, and on many occasions dele
cations have travelled from 300 to 4O(
miles to inspect u herd. which is looked
upon as opening a new avenue O.
wealth for them.
, For a time it was feared that TIL
Alaskan dogs unless checked woult
manifest a disposition to scatter ant
destroy the reindeer herds, but tn
herders were armed and had stric
:. orders to fire upon any dog interfering
with a herd, and after a number o
meddlesome dogs had been shot thi
= source of annoyance disappeared a
most altogether. A few reindeer ar
!, killed each year by wolves.
y Even more expert than the Siberian
= in the care and training of reindeer ar
= the natives of I4apland. Accordingly
y score of fullblooded Lapps have bee
induced by liberal offers to emigrate t
Alaska, where they form a little co
= ony. With them have came a humble
of their dogs. remarkably intelliger
animals that not only herd and guar
y. the reindeer, but also assist in trainin
and breaking them to harness. I'll
dogs are very courageous and wi
fight wolves, mountain lions or an
other beast of prey that may attac
=. the herd.
j. Any Of the Lapps may upon apple;
ton to the government have the loa
ar Of 100 head of reindeer for a period (
IS from three to five years, at the end
which time the borrower returns tt
ir 100 head of deer to the government, Z
,e tanning the increase as his priva'
property.
,t The reindeer has also been introdu
,r ed as a pack animal. One Of the pi
IL neers in this movement was Har
ID Summers, who for nearly a score
10 years has been a miner and prospect
;s in Alaska. This veteran some montl