Annual Report on Introduction of Domestic Reindeer Into Alaska (Volume 9)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: REPORT OF DR. W. T. HARRIS, UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION, ON REINDEER. [From Annual Report, 1899, Pages 1 to lix, and annual statement, pages 14-18.] textit{The reindeer industry. Still more important, however, is .the reindeer industry, which is slowly gaining a foothold in the northwest and extreme north. The abundance of reindeer food in all parts of Alaska where the moss has not given place to forest timber growths and to grasses makes it extremely desirable to have at all the missionary stations and Government schools large herds of reindeer, so that the native apprentices may learn the methods of herding and training to harness. Something like 2,000 deer were reported in the fall of 1898 as the survival and increase from about 600 imported from Siberia. The annual increase of the herd is so rapid that if we once possess 5,000 of these animals the annual increase could easily be made to furnish the needed herds for the remaining stations in northwestern Alaska. On account of the substitution of forcst trees and grass for moss in southeastern Alaska, where the temperature is milder, there is no possibility of reindeer raising in that section. But on the highlands of the Upper Yukon, as well as the Aleutian Islands and all other parts of Alaska, except the river-bottom lands (where trees take the place of moss), the reindeer can find plenty of food and will ultimately be of great use to all the inhabitants of that region, both natives and immigrants from the States. The annual increase of a herd with us has been from 40 to 60 per cent, and a herd of 5.000 ought to furnish 2,000 fawns each spring. At each mission station there is constantly going on a process of selecting the trustworthy natives those ambitious to learn the civilization of the white ...