The Nome nugget., 1902-01-08
The Possibilities of It in This Section of Alaska.
Garbou Great Numbers Once ROaed Over and Fed Upon inc Moss of the Vast Tuadra Plans-Pastare Here for Millions of These Valuable Anima!s-Ehe Wcrk
 Accomplished by Dr. Sheldon Jackson.
-s'A great man is he who makes two blades of I, grass grow where only one grew before."


 ,grass grow where only one grew before"
 In accordance with this very apt definition, which broadly means that the man who uses his best and highest intelligence and strenuously exerts himself 10 preserve, to increase and to multiply the resources and food sup ,pl.es of.his country is it's greatest bene- .factor and it's real great. man, the title of grea, ness is due to Dr. Shel'lOn Jackson. United States General Agent of Education for Alaska. Ri, was the idea to introduce aud to sock Alaska with. aomesticated reindeer, and for oven ten years now he has per-evered, practically all alene and unsupported, often in the face of ridi ule and ,evere vviligcation, to labor indefatigably for Ahe successful eOnS,mmatiOn of his grand plan. Year after year has he .knocked at the doors of the always parsimonious congress when Alaska wants help, and imllored for ap, r. priations, which were doled out to him in ridiculously inadequate proportions. Never in the least sIaring himself, he has chserfully undergone the severe strain of continuous travelling from sci,y to city over the entire length and tbreadth of the United States anu of leetufing in these on the conditions and needs of Alaska to ,the masses lO gain their support. He has visited the dar north country of Lapland in mid winter, and has exposed himself to many hardships summer after summer in cruising along the eastern shores Of Siberia in the search for deer and tn Aacquaint himself with the best ways and means to raise and to herd deer, all to benefit Alaska, and even to this day the people of Alaska seem to be ;1ess able or willing than anybody to grasp the benefits to be der.ved from and the importance to Alaska of suc- accessibility established reindeer industry
 Frankly, Dr. Jackson has made his mistakes, and his methods have not always been above reproG.h. But. then. tkere.needs must be ever some -thiug of the e.Jesuit in the Presbyterian, and for that matter in every man who aims 10 achieve great things; he can not always stop to eXp;ain, even to himself, all the means he uses to sain his end. And absolute unsel6shness is beyond hnman ken.
 , Let us lay aside for the present all this tweedledee and tweedledum about .the fitness of dOmesticated reindeer to be used us pack or draught animals, about their superiority or inferiority- to horses or malaMutes tor traveiing .pur- poses in this northland, subject winch has been discussed ad nauseam, .as a ,cule, by people who have iittle con-ep- ,iion of it. Let us, without prejudice, Hook first only upon the evonomlc, tile 1.-two blades oi grass" side of the pr, le- sition. Not quite twenty years ago North western Alaska was still the feeding ground for innumerable cari- sbOu, whkh r.a aieh in 'inniense nerds all over this section of the .Ountry. AOne year, late in the fall, ,in those days, we stopped and watched irom hilltop ga deerhsrd, then migrating for the awinter to the narthern plains, crowd 4ing and streaming through . narrow sdeile ln the mountain range back of sCape LisbOurne. Tor three suecessDve days they kept. passing through nearly .lininterruptedly, and there must have Jbeen hundreds oi thou~anls ol the ,4 in sthat one herd. At that time, too. tray neliag during the months of February .-and March into the .nterior from Point Barrow, Me would tor hundreds Ol -.miles never be .. single day without seeing caribou upon caribou as far as lhe eye .would.reach, browsingsin in small .and large herdsson Lhe-vass and OOunti' ,tul moss pastures. Toiay you might travel there for hundreds of miles, per .haps, without seeing one single deer The northern Eski.Lo had become pos asessed of Winchester repeating rifles .and fixed anmusit.on in large quantf
 ties nearly as sO0nas invented from the strenuously competing traders in ex schange for their furs and whalebone
 With these, just4fOrslhs lust ot killing shey wsntonly sIsugh. cred the caribot in incredible numbers. 1 have knowr
 natlves to shoot hundreds of them in {
 single day without taking the trouble
 either to skin them or rave any part o s-fhsir meat except their tongues. Witt
 sucA ruLnless ani indiscrilninate Kill
 ing It did nOt take many winters 'befort
 the caribou became eitherextinguishet ,-or were driven oil. Today the mill on.
 upon ,nlii.Ons Ot acres Of reinnter pas
 Gures are lying in absolute idIeness
 their nutritious moss going to waste
 and growing more and more luxui.ian lon account of not being cropped. l .eithar tends 70 create addAtiona