The Nome nugget., 1902-01-15

AS the following articles deal larger! with my personal connection and ex- perieness with the Chowchuan and the reindeer business 1 think it proper to advise the readers in advance Of that fact and to ask their kind indulgence with me for putting myself prominently in the foreground.
 In 1891, when happened to be aboard of ahe United States revenue cutter Bear "as guest. having been kindly granted passage down on her from Point Barrow to Unalaska by the com manding officer, Captain M. N. Healy, thisSvessel had orders to take Dr. Shel- .don Jackson, who was aboard, along the Siberian .eoast to make inquiries with regard to the purchasing of ,dOmesticated reindeer for introduction .intO Alaska from the Siberian reindeer ,nomads. Captain Healy, who for years had commanded the revenue cutter in these northern waters, though strict edisciplinarian and somewhat of u .martinet aboard of his ship. was an exceedingly just and kind man withal, and was very well liked blythe northern natives on both sides of the straits, and they would at any time put themselves |. Gnit to quite .an extent to please him. The Bear took some native interpreters, who could talk English fairly well, aboard at Indian Polnt, and we had 9 very interesting cruise along the north eastern Siberian coast, extending nearly to Cape Serdze Kamen. At the different stopping places that were made numbers of reindeer owners were invited aboard and visited the ship and were interviewed regarding their will .ingness to sell deer when the vessel should return the following summer well supplied with barter goods. Ac- scording to the interpreters, these deer snen expressed'the readiness, one and all, to sell deer, but had my suspicion at the time from the general non- .committal attitude assumed by them [ that, in order to make things pleasant all around for the time being, the ia- terpre,ers modified in their translal ion questions and answers on both sides considerably.
 Later, when I became better ac- squainted with the Chowchuan and learned to talk their tongue, | found that the Siberian Eskimo interpreter is . very unreliable quantity. Stand- ing in.awe of the deermen, as-a.rule, and afraid to .0tfend them, he will crlnge before them, and lawn on them, and twist everything you ask him to say in very deprecat0ry way. The ChowchMn, on the contrary, straightforward, outspoken, self-reliant and independent as they are, never stOOp to mince matters. They snaturaily.got- to look upon the white men like s@pon. the supplicatlng Eskimo interpreters condition Of things which tended, of course, to make the establishment of trading relations with them very unsatisfactory. The Bear, however, procured the same summer l6 deer, which were all landed safely on Unalaska island. But the family of deer never increased there; q rather ludicrUus occurrence caused bucks to be omitted. The officer in Nchargs of the selecting of the deer out of the herds, after they had been pur- .chased, overreached himself aud plcked out, on account of their large, fine ap- pearance, us bucks, three deer which had been gelded. This mistake was not discovered until the vessel was well on her way south, and is to this day a laughing matter with the Siberian natives, and did not serve either to give the Chowchuan a very high -opinion. of the.wisdOm of the white man. yt was not tifl five years later that a
 buck was landed in Unalaska with one of the still remain ng does. which had gone wild in the mean itime.
 In the summer of 1892 the Teller reindeer station was established at Port Clarence, money having been appropriated to that effect during the
 previous session of congress, and. the
 Bear, being fitted with barter goods,
 was ordered to go and cruise along the Siberian coast to purchase as many deer, as possible. It took her nearly rthe whole summer of continuous steam ing up.and down the coast to collect and buy the TO odd deer. which
 mere safely landed in Port Clarence. The following summer she was not able even to procure that many, and from year to year the amount procura ole grew less and less, although she kept on cruising backand .orti there nearly continuously, to the neglect of her other duties and W rk, colst ntly get tin fooled more or less by tle Lski-. 0 coast natives asd ter r.terS, wio suOu11 send her rh,. nial.t. f. Dlat e