New-York tribune., 1906-07-01
REINDEER TN LABRADOR
To Be Substituted for the Man
Eating Dogs.


ment fraught with the largest beneficial possibil-
tiles is now being pushed by DR.. Grenfell of Lab
rador. whose efforts thus far to ameliorate the
condition Of the people of that desoate land have
won him such well deserved recognition. His new
est project is TO introduce the reindeer into that
country a transport animal in place of the
savage. man-eating dogs which at present perform
that duty there.
These terrible dogs have a large proportion of
wolfsh blood in them. in many instances being the
offspring OF wolf and dog. and they make excel
lent draft animals, provided they can be kept In
subjection. But this is difficult as their natural
ferocity is always breaking out, and woe to the
man who becomes the subject of It. Only a few
DAYS ago the shocking news was received here that
these ravenous brutes had killed and partly eaten
Eve persons in Labrador within few weeks. one
was a fisherman, aged thirty-fve years, who Went
into the forest alone with a specially vicious team
chat usually required two mer) TO bring out fire.
wood and was set upon by the creatures and de-
stroyed though he fought desperately with his axe
against them, killing two, Splitting anothers head
and vounding several more. But they overpoWereo
hm and required the united efforts of six OF MS
comrades get the mangled body out OF their snarl
ing fangs. Another was the killing and eating
uf an elderly man. his wife and his grandson by 4
pack Of dogs, by which they were being conveyed
10 a station some miles distant The dogs re-
turned home thirteen days after starting, and their
harness was entangIed with fragments of human
clothing. Search made for the victims but
without avail. The third case is that of a woman
who met the same fate while on her way to visit
a neighbor residing half mile from her home
The dogs attacked her the way, pulled her
down and tore her into fragments.
These are only the latest cases. Dr. GrenfeH
himself records the fact that last December the
rnatron Of his hospital Battle HarbOr thrown
dovn and attacked by them and but for the
fortunate arrival Of man with an axe would
probably have perished. He. too notes that at
Hebron they killed and ate fifteen-year-old boy
while he was dragging dead seal from his fathers
,..f- he
surgeon attests that they killed and partly con-
sumed an eighteen -year-old girl who was drawing
water from d we'll at Cartwright, and that at an
other time a pack OF them hunted and killed a
woman Who was crossing the ice at Holton Inlet
DR. Simpson treated the siX-year-old son OF the
factor at Ryolet post, whose body showed fifty
seven bites from fangs Of these monsters, which
had nearly killed him, and the Moravian mission
aries tell of how they stole the baby out of the
cradle in "A settlers hut at Main. and when the
distracted mother sought for it nothing remained
but a few blOodstained garments.
Yet these dogs. vicious and unsafe though they
are remain indispensable to existence in Labrador
in winter. Horses unknown, and would be
useless in the deep SHOWS, other workable
beasts exist there The coast IS blocked with ice,
communication by boat is impossible. and dog
sleds the only means of getting about. Dillon
Wallace the explorer. for instance. who travelled
right along the seaface from Hudson Strait TO
Quebec used 267 dogs in relays in his 2OO0-Inile
journey, and the Grenfen mission surgeon in his
winter trips probably covers as great a distance.
ie not greater by means of dogs. A peculiar fact
about Labrador and this plague of dogs is that
case OF hydrophObia has never been known there,
though there is not settler on the coast nor
visitor OF any long duration who has escaped be-
ing bitten once or more by the dogs.
The statement that one-half the world does not
know how the other half lives is justified by the
of Labrador. for it is safe to that If their
dogs were all destroyed to-day the whole native
population must perish or emigrate, The dog is
more essential their than food, cloth
ing or fuel, for he helps largely to provide all
three conveying parties into the country to obtain
game for food peltries for clothing and forest
Windfalls for fuel
DR.. GrenfeII however, purposes supplying for the
dogs a more acceptable and useful substitute. as
the experience of Alaska proves the reindeer to be.
lie has already set on foot measures for securing
experimental consignment of these animals from
Sweden, and the Newfoundland government win
follow his example. though on a larger scale DR.
Grenfel has been considering this venture for
years, and corresponded with DIR. Sheldon Jack
son, Of Washington. the Superintendent of Educa-
tion for Alaska and the man to whom the ntroduc-
ton of reindeer into Alaska is mainly due He is
enthusiastic about them so thoroughly salts
ned or the enormous advantages they would be to
Labrador that he offered 10 visit ST. Johns and
address a public meeting the subject were
invitation extended to him.
But even without his personal presence the facts
OF his work in this direction widely known and
form conclusive testimony, both to the .1ccess of
the project in Alaska and the probably similar out
come in Labrador and also 10 the certainty that II
would Overshadow all other measures for prevent
ing the determination Of the natives through fbe
various which tend to bring about such a
result when the white comes in contact with
The inferior races"
Conditions almost identical in Alaska and
Labrador. The San Francisco whalers on the pa
sihcs like their New Bedford brethren on the At
antic. have ravaged the seaboard northward into
the very Arctic seas. and with their steam vessels
and explosive harpoons have killed virtually all
the whales and walrus in the dords driving this
natural food Of the natives from its haunts while
the caribou musllOx and other wild game OF the
land have been depleted through the Introduction
Of modern firearms. thus carrying starvation and
20 fishing and 20 menial work the Esqumaus would
perish for lack OF the necessaries of life they
are to-day gradually dying out despite all efforts
Dr.. Sheldon Jackson. when he visited Alaska hf-
Teen years ago, 10 establish schools the
uVes, found the Esqumaus more in need OF food
than education, and was faced with the problem Of
EsquiEnaus lived under identical conditions those
Sraff animals ana Subject s 10 ike oU3breass s o
yciousneEs their part. Ii occurred TO ham, there
there the Lapland reindeer he could at once solve
the food issue and furnish transport animals FOR
gult thai now speaks volumes for what an indomit-
able man can accomplish who makes IL his mission
q lite % carry such q heavy task 20 successful
etsFfiaE with sixteen head OF Siberian reindeer.
Hon. END landed at Unelaska ln the fan OF 1891, he
eed IL l1 more II M 1892 S pTS0eIree ~ g. thr9Sgh add
5ss congrefs gave us aEst APPROPRIATION To- for the
nj an retiirning from Siberia win these FOUND
seventy nine healthy faWns born IN the herds al
sred deer and brought over seven Ispp herders 70
rain the EsQuimaUs IN herding driving and caring
ior the animals since the EsQuimaus being a race
q hunters BY and land. could not take 10 a
pastoral existence I'D she keeping OF ami
nails dissim:iar from their dogs. without con-