ESKIMOS TAKE TO REINDEERS.

A letter from Alaska in the New York Sun recently has the following interesting facts:

Of the twenty thousand reindeer under government supervision in Alaska about two thousand are above the Arctic Circle where the climate is much more severe than in their old feeding grounds in Siberia, from which they were carried by the United States revenue cutters some years ago. The reports of the local superintendents of reindeer herds will be forwarded in this, the second mail to leave the Arctic this year. These reports will show a very small increase in the herds.

The mortality among the fawns this last year was very great, owing to the blizzards which swept over the tundras in April and May when the fawning season was on. Newly born fawns, unable to stand up in the blinding storms and help themselves to nourishment, froze to death by hundreds within ten minutes after birth. Wolves and half-wolf dogs also killed many in some of the herds.

At present the herds are kept out on the open tundra near the sea, where there is no protection from the cutting blasts. District Superintendent A. N. Evans has arranged to have the deer taken inland next spring at least as far as the foothills, where the peculiar white moss on which the creatures feed is abundant, and where there is ample protection from the winds. It is hoped that this will save the fawns and prevent the heavy loss of the present year being repeated.

An encouraging feature of the work here, far from markets and utterly shut out from any considerable contact with white men, is the fact that the native is slowly but certainly coming to recognize the great possibilities of the reindeer industry. While every effort has been made to give as many natives as possible an interest in the herds by direct ownership of some of the deer, the owners of deer are still a very small minority.

So valuable has a government apprenticeship come to be considered that it has often been the deciding factor in determining the outcome of the dusky love affairs. “When you get some reindeer I will be your wife,” says the Innuit maiden with the tattooed chin. These wise young ladies know that the ownership of deer carries with it as a usual thing three or four years of first-class government rations and piles of cloth and clothing which Uncle Sam throws about in the Arctic with a generous hand. So among the natives there is developing a sort of reindeer aristocracy quite at variance with the old democratic, communistic ideas of the others who hold no property worth while, and who have not been favored by the government.

As only a limited number can be appointed apprentices every year, and thus draw government rations, many are now trying to get deer from other natives without waiting for government favors. In this few have succeeded, for the owners, recognizing their great value, are running the price of female reindeer skyward. With the destruction of the country’s game and the rising standard of life among the natives the population will come more and more to depend upon the reindeer industry, which will doubtless develop rapidly.

Living in a savage state of society with no other domestic animal than the half-tamed malamoot dog, the process of teaching the Eskimo how to take care of deer has been slow. Severe measures have had to be resorted to in many cases to compel the natives to keep their dogs from the deer camp.

Also it has been found difficult to prevent those who have no deer from shooting the unfortunate animals that stray away from the herd. These are considered legitimate prey and until recently were hunted the same as caribou. This year, however, a great many of these stray deer have been picked up and put back into the herds which they had deserted.

It has thus been found necessary to put the native herder through a course of training. Those who get their deer directly from the government serve an apprenticeship of four years. They are bound by a written contract, the strict terms of which they cannot violate without peril of losing their annual allotment of reindeer and suffering discharge from the service.

During the first three years of their apprenticeship they receive in addition to the reindeer a generous supply of food free of charge. Cloth, clothing, traps, guns, and ammunition are also given to the fortunate apprentice, who soon becomes a person of consequence in the community. For these governmental favors the apprentice is supposed to take care of his own deer and to assist in caring for the government deer.

The work of the herder in a reindeer camp is not arduous, and seems to be especially attractive to the carefree native. Ordinarily the deer have a way of taking care of themselves that suits the native. Every day an apprentice drives the herd to some feeding ground, where they feed while the herder saunters about or hunts ptarmigan or other game near at hand.

If the moss is poor the deer may feed for six hours, at the end of which time they are driven back to the vicinity of the camp and allowed to remain there until the next feeding time, while the ease-loving servants of the government sleep or whittle fine old ivory into curios to be traded off on the ships for the tobacco which Uncle Sam overlooked in ordering the shiploads of supplies which annually find their way to the reindeer camps of Alaska.

True, there is other work to be done. Every spring along comes fawning season, and the deer herders have to stand watch day and night by turns. Now and then the long, wild note of the Arctic wolf is heard through the midwinter gloom and a constant watch must be kept by well-armed men. The repeating rifle made wolves so scarce, however, that dogs are by far the greatest source of danger.

It seems utterly impossible to train the malamoot dog to herd deer. At sight of a deer the tamest malamoot becomes as uncontrollable as though he had never known human restraint and were once more a plain wolf.

Besides guarding the herd occasionally from these dangers, there are sled deer to be trained, and every June there is a kind of round-up, when the young fawns are marked, along with all deer that have changed owners during the year. In the ear of each government deer a little aluminum button is riveted securely, but all private owners and herders have a mark which must be registered with the local superintendent and also at Washington. This mark is made by cutting the ear.

So far the native in the Far North has made almost no use of the wonderfully rich milk of the reindeer. This milk, which is as white as the Arctic snows, is at least ninety per cent. cream. In fact, it is practically all a rich, snow-white, sugary cream. It is the most nourishing milk in the world, but the government has so far supplied the camps with condensed milk, and the herders have preferred opening cans to milking deer.

Unlike the Laplander, the Eskimo does not make a pet of his favorite deer. When he wants to milk her she is lassoed and thrown down. When her legs are carefully tied with walrus skin strings and her horns are safely held by some stout friend, the process of milking begins. When the last drop is extracted the highly indignant animal is unlashed and allowed to get up and go about her business.

Sometimes a horn is knocked off or a leg broken before the struggling reindeer understands that she is to be milked and not branded or butchered. Under the circumstances the dairying feature of Arctic life is not very prominent, and the milkmaid’s song is not welcomed by the wise little animals that have undergone the torture of one milking.

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159—“That Boy, Checkers.”

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163—Business Bob.

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168—The African Trail.

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172—Under Many Suns.

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174—The Girl Rancher.

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176—On Terror Island.

177—At the Double X Ranch.

179—Warbling William.

180—Engine No. 13.

181—The Lost Chief.

182—South-paw Steve.

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184—On Sampan and Junk.

185—Dick Hardy’s School Scrapes.

186—Cowboy Steve.

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188—Tracked Across Europe.

189—Cool Colorado.

190—Captain Mystery.

191—Silver Sallie.

192—The Ranch Raiders.

193—A Baptism of Fire.

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195—Mark Mallory’s Struggle.

196—A Strange Clue.

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200—Young Giants of the Gridiron.

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206—The Sky Smugglers.

207—Bart Benner’s Mine.

208—The Young Ranchman.

209—Bart Benner’s Cowboy Days.

210—Gordon Keith in Java.

211—Ned Hawley’s Fortune.

212—Under False Colors.

213—Bags, the Boy Detective.

214—On the Pampas.

215—The Crimson Clue.

216—At the Red Horse.

217—Rifle and Rod.

218—Pards.

219—Afloat with a Circus.

220—Wide Awake.

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222—Westward Ho.

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226—Marooned in the Ice.

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229—Cadet Clyde Connor.

230—The Mark of a Thumb.

231—Set Adrift.

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233—The Boy in Black.

234—A Wonder Worker.

235—The Boys of the Mountain Inn.

236—To Unknown Lands.

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238—The Rival Nines.

239—Engineer Bob.

240—Among the Witch-doctors.

241—Dashing Tom Bexar.

242—Lion-hearted Jack.

243—In Montana’s Wilds.

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245—Roving Dick, the Chauffeur.

246—Cast Away in the Jungle.

247—The Sky Pilots.

248—A Toss-up for Luck.

249—A Madman’s Secret.

250—Lionel’s Pluck.

251—The Red Wafer.

252—The Rivals of Riverwood.

253—Jolly Jack Jolly.

254—A Jay from Maine.

255—Hank, the Hustler.

256—At War with Mars.

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258—Gordon Keith, Magician.

259—Lucky-stone Dick.

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261—Up-to-date.

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263—The Golden Harpoon.

264—Barred Out.

265—Bob Porter’s Schooldays.

266—Gordon Keith, Whaler.

267—Chums at Grandcourt.

268—Partners Three.

269—Dick Derby’s Double.

270—Gordon Keith, Lumber-jack.

271—Money to Spend.

272—Always on Duty.

273—Walt, the Wonder-Worker.

274—Far Below the Equator.

275—Pranks and Perils.

276—Lost in the Ice.

277—Simple Simon.

278—Among the Arab Slave Raiders.

279—The Phantom Boy.

280—Round-the-World Boys.

281—Nimble Jerry, the Young Athlete.

282—Gordon Keith, Diver Detective.

283—In the Woods.

284—Track and Trestle.

285—The Prince of Grit.

286—The Road to Fez.

287—Engineer Tom.

288—Winning His Way.

289—Life-line Larry.

290—Dick Warren’s Rise.

292—Two Tattered Heroes.

293—A Slave for a Year.

294—The Gilded Boy.

295—Bicycle and Gun.

296—Ahead of the Show.

297—On the Wing.

298—The Thumb-print Clue.

299—Bootblack Bob.

300—A Mascot of Hoodooville.

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302—Frank Bolton’s Chase.

303—In Unknown Worlds.

304—Held for Ransom.

305—Wilde & Woolley.

306—The Young Horseman.

307—Through the Air to Fame.

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309—A Young West Pointer.

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327—The Boys’ Revolt.

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330—Gordon Keith Under African Skies.

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342—Through the Earth.

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358—From Rocks to Riches.

359—Diplomat Dave.

360—Yankee Grit.

361—The Tiger’s Claws.

362—A Taxicab Tangle.

363—A Hoodoo Machine.

364—Pluck Beats Luck.

365—Two Young Adventurers.

366—The Roustabout Boys.

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