New-York tribune., 1906-07-01

eachn II He ,5e found after fgy f5g III oTr
TO secure the best results and the greatest per-
manency to the herds with the largest success
maintained iIi by religious Or phllanthropc bodies
should be avaied Of as furnishing natural centres
there is constantly going on process of selecting
ab b1 6ee 1osned to seHers sfations
a government aid in the nature of an outfit OF
people in the industrial arts and in the practice of
thrift lust as public money is used to pay for tlG
stock of model farm which is used as an appara-
tus for the instruction OF pupils These herds
have been loaned condition that they be used for
manaeing Of these deer and that after five wears
the government may take back from the herd
number OF deer IN good condition equal to the orig
At every station the selected natives are trained
as apprentices in the treatment of the deer. On
average. five years tuition is needed before an
Esquirnau becomes a thoroughly trained herder.
The apprentice, during the fve-year period. is
clothed and supported either by the government the
deer owner in whose service he may be employed,
year, upon which he may place ms mark ana con
slider them his private property, subject to the
sale It is estimated that at the present at least
four hundred natives are obtaining their support
der agreement with the government of the United
States, by the terms of which the female deer may
not be killed for meat sold to anybody but the
government. though surplus male deer may be sold
In the last fifteen years $50 reindeer have been
increased at the rate of IS per cent annually. In
that period 10267 fawns have been born in that
butchered or died there remain s,lS9- In 1892 Con-
enf Teted so to aid fe it, and has Vi %oteG further
sums each year since. granting $25Coo a year since
and Lapland enormous much that DR..
Jackson; when ne first went seeking the animals,
travelled fifteen hundred miles along the Siberian
coast before he could induce native to part with
less than dollar a year for the first four years
VIII at the end of that time sell at the mines for
sledge it will be worth twice much The, deer
Because of their tinlid and gregarous habits. they
honsand of em e SR 9e Ssy cpn @
rich rich milk of about the thickness Of cream. and the
flesh Is as succulent as good beef.
Apart from the general utility of the herds,
forded in the winter Of 1s97'9s when some fourteen
San Francisco whalers were frozen fast in the ice
Point Barrow: win means Of relief and the eer
two hundred reindeer were assembled at Cape
Prince of Wales ard driven eight hundred miles
50 degrees be oW zero arriving at Point Barrow
t, Lte sontroh 9I 20 iaMs IN tine TO SiEe tlG %
through this arduOus journey. and by Strengthening
aRepted dRem AL as they were needed tragedy was
In Alaska there are twenty-five thousand Esqu
nitude would be ample Apart from the dog. which
through its wOlfsh strain, is untrustworthy and
vicious, the reindeer is the only draft animal in
while it has the further adyantage Of being able
cheapness, speed and endurance make its universal
use in northern ATTITUDES only question of time
into accounf ali the herds owned by the the goVern5
ment, the cost TO the latter for each deer il main
tained $11, while the to the govern
ment of each deer loaned to the missions only
II cents. The system Of utilizing the missions was
therefore both money saver to the government
and valuable in aiding the natives to support them
selves. And in Labrador there the Mora
Wan and Grenfell missions. the policy could
be adopted The speed of the deer is attested
they do much better than dogs Between Eaton
and Nome, a round trip of 4S0 miles, over a rough
country without roads trails the time
for the deer to the route is thirteen days,
while it takes dogs eighteen to twenty Last winter
tWentyfour round trips. aggregating thirty three
hundred miles, were made on two mail routes and
a third fifteen hundred miles, also covered.
taken in 1898 by w. A. Keman, who left the
breeding station originally established by DR.. Jack
at Port Clarence. drove his deer southwark
thousand miles to the Kuskakwin River and
returned to the station safely with his animals,
covering two thousand miles of the toughest and
barrenest country in Alaska within three months,
the deer subsisting on the moss and HchenS which
they dug with their hOofs from beneath the snow.
Such are the animals which DR.. GrenfeH pro-
vantages he has in the experience of DIR. Sheldon
jackson and the of the movement IN
Alaska there is little if any doubt that the project
will be quite successful in Labrador as it has
been there. It is understood that the NeWfound-
land government will, If the scheme proves feaSi-
BILE, provide such financial aid for 1t as is within
its power. and it may be REASONABLY concluded that
an economic revolution in Labrador which should
in time do for the EsQuimaus and other settlers
there what the reindeer have already done for Lap
land and Siberia.