Report on Introduction of Domestic Reindeer Into Alaska, Volume 6U.S. Government Printing Office, 1897 - Alaska |
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afternoon Ahlook Alaska anchor Antisarlook's apprentices Arctic arrived August Bering Sea Brevig calm camp Cape Prince Captain cold cutter Bear deer Died dogs DOMESTIC REINDEER drift drift ice Dunnuk Elektoon Eskimo fawns February fish forenoon Fredrik Golovin Bay Hanna herd herders Island January Johan July July 21 June Killed Kjellmann Kotzebue Sound Kummuk Kuskokwim River land Laplanders Lapps light east wind Mathis medium strong Mikkel miles mission missionaries mometer morning Moses moss Nakkila natives nice night noon north-northeast wind northeast northwest wind Partly cloudy party Point Barrow Point Hope Port Clarence Prince of Wales reported returned revenue cutter River seal Sekeoglook sent September SHELDON JACKSON ship shore Siberia Sitka sleds snow steamed steamer storm strong north wind Sunday school superintendent supply Tautook Teller Reindeer Station Thermometer trade transportation trip Unalaska village whaling Widstead wife winter Wocksock wood Yukon Yukon River zero
Popular passages
Page 18 - In the limited traveling of the past, dogs have been used for that purpose, but dog teams are slow and must be burdened with the food for their own maintenance. On the other hand, trained reindeer make in a day two or three times the distance covered by a dog team, and at the end of the day can be turned loose to gather their support from the moss, which is always accessible to them.
Page 17 - In arranging plans for the distribution of the domestic reindeer in Alaska, so far as the native population are concerned, I have looked to the missionaries settled among them for cooperation and assistance. They are the wisest and most disinterested friends the natives have. From their position and work, having learned the character and needs of the people, they can wisely direct the transfer of the ownership of the deer from the Government to such of the natives as have been trained in the care...
Page 17 - The industrial pursuit which nature has mapped out for the native population of arctic and subarctic Alaska is the breeding and herding of reindeer and the use of the deer as a means of transportation and intercommunication. During the past season the influx of miners into the Yukon region has made a very urgent call for reindeer for freighting purposes.
Page 123 - ... upholsterer, and glove maker. The hair is in great demand, by reason of its wonderful buoyancy, in the construction of life-saving apparatus. The horns and hoofs make the best glue known to commerce. With Alaska stocked with this valuable animal, the hardy Eskimo and the enterprising American would develop industries in the lines indicated that would amount to millions of dollars annually, and all this in a region where such industries are only developed enough to suggest their great possibilities....
Page 18 - Tho difficulty experienced in providing the miners with the necessaries of life has demonstrated the necessity of reindeer transportation, and that the development of the large mining interests of that region will be dependent upon the more rapid introduction of reindeer for freighting. There are no roads in Alaska and off of the rivers no transportation facilities to any great extent. In the limited traveling of the past, dogs have been used for that purpose, but dog teams are slow and must be burdened...
Page 17 - ... for the famishing Eskimo, but it is now found that the reindeer are as essential to the white men as to the Eskimo. The wonderful placer mines of the Yukon region are situated from 25 to 100 miles from the great Yukon River. The provisions brought from the south and landed upon the banks of the river are with great difficulty transported to the mines. So great was the extremity last winter, that mongrel Indian dogs cost...
Page 128 - Majesty the Czar of Russia, requesting permission for this office to place a purchasing agent, with one or two herdsmen, at some suitable point on the coast of Siberia adjacent to Alaska. At the request of the Department of the Interior in 1892, permission to purchase reindeer on the Siberian coast was obtained through his excellency the Russian minister resident at this capital. But experience has shown that unless the deer are purchased beforehand and collected at one point on the coast, the United...
Page 26 - REPOET, 1895-96. where we were transferred to rowboats to make a landing. Although it was vacation time, the school bell was rung and the children called in that I might have an opportunity of seeing them at work. The mosquitoes, however, were so bad that the visiting party became anxious to get off shore, and I did not have as much time as I would have liked. Returning to the ship, we hoisted anchor and sailed for St. Michael, which we reached at 1.50 the following morning. In the harbor at St....
Page 32 - ... could force our way in and reach the station, but in vain; and again at 2 pm we turned southward and west, steaming through heavy ice until midnight, when the engine was stopped and, as usual, the vessel allowed to drift. August 10, at 5 am , the ship resumed her usual practice of bumping ice and forcing her way within sight of the desired haven, and then turning away and steaming southward, until 6.20 pm, when we came up with the whaling barks Horatio, Mermaid, and Alice Knowles.
Page 18 - ... they had eaten him. When he was gone, they had dug up Pena, who had been buried on May 30, and were now (June 14) eating him. When they reached the ship they were so weak that some of them had to be carried and all of them helped to the forecastle, where the clothes, swarming with vermin and reeking in filth, were cut off of them and thrown overboard. They were then thoroughly washed and their hair cut. When stripped of their clothing their emaciation showed their suffering. Requests have also...