The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-08-26
SIBERIAN REINDEER
 THRIVING IN ALASKA
From the New York Times.

From the New York Times.
 ] It seems such decided novelty that
 the United States government should be
 successful in introducing Siberian rein deer into Alaska, that the announce
 ment a day or two ago by the Rev. Sheldon Jackson, educational agent for
 Alaska, that the government intends to increase the number of the animals there to 15,000, surprised many people who heard it. It marks the successful culmina-
 tion of purely philanthropic and benev- olent act on the part of this government It Is only matter of about ten years ago that MT. Jackson first began his
 campaign for the introduction of the Si-
 berian reindeer. He called attention to the fact that whole villages of Eskimos
 had died from starvation. principally be-
 cause of their improvident slaughter of
 the native reindeer, which had previously existed in Alaska.
 His efforts were at first pooh-poohed
 as impracticable But MT. Jackson kept hammering away on the same line, until, in 1892, he was allowed to take sixteen
 reindeer into Alaska. In the following
 year these were followed by a herd of | 175
 This experimental nucleus was in-
 creased by small yearly additions until
 1S9S when herd numbering 537 head
 was shipped to Dawson City. This herd
 marked a new era in the experiment.
 Previously tho work of caring for the
 reindeer in their new home was given lo1r lacking proper tuition, they did not get on we'll with the animals, so 1t was
 decided to import Lapp experts to care for and handle the deer in their new l home.
 This large herd, with the LApp experts,
 their families and dogs, arrived at New
 York in 1S9S and for the time they re- | mained at this port they proved a spec
 tacle of absorbing interest to New York ers-tho sleek, soft-eyed. docile reindeer contentedly mouthing their quids of rock
 moss, and the roly-poly Lapp experts,
 with their round-faced wives and blub- ber-fat babies, proving as much of a cu- riosity to New Workers as the towering sky-scrapers and the other marks of our
 modern civilization proved to the Lapps. From New York this herd, with it's caretakers, was shipped direct to Dawson | City. The experiment with the Lapp ex- perts at first proved disastrous On their
 arrival in Alaska they. with their famii-
 les, became i'll, and in some cases the
 herds were entirely deserted by the Lapps, the deer suffering slightly from that cause. In one case the Lapps, when deserting the herd on account of illness. left their dogs also. When the herd was again taken in hand 1t was found to be short several head. The sleek and we'll fed appearance of the Lapp dogs left no doubt of the fate of the missing reindeer.
 But against all these setbacks the deer have thrived and multiplied beyond the widest hopes of the projectors of the scheme. There were procured for Alaska in all 997 reindeer. In 1900 there was a total of 1923 head of reindeer in Alaska. Of this number 644 head were in posses sion of the government. 11s4 head belong ing to the six mission stations in the dis trict and 1495 head to Eskimo apprentices. There had been bred in the eight years from the original 997 Siberian deer 3342 lawns. Aside from the satisfactory null tiplying of the reindeer, it is said that the fawrs born in Alaska excel in quality those born either in Siberia or Lapland. developing into larger and stronger anil mals than the Siberian deer from which they spring.
 At the present day the herd has in-
 creased to 5000 head, but the Rev. MT. Jackson says the demand for the deer as beasts of burden alone far exceed this