Annual Report on Introduction of Domestic Reindeer Into Alaska

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 edition. Excerpt: ...price and more for all he got, and so am I that I have done the same. For a day's work of ordinary manual labor (which begins about 9 a. m. and ends at about 4 p. m., with frequent stops for smoking and resting) I aim to pay a native one-half sack of flour and board, or its equivalent, and I have the same satisfaction that Mr. Churchill had--I am confident I pay full value and more for all I get. Mr. Churchill took the pains to ascertain that my private account in San Francisco was credited with the $735 draft, but why, in all fairness, did he not go a step further and say that it was credited toward a bill of $3,057.55 for bills paid and goods shipped me that year by S. Foster & Co. Mr. Churchill accuses me of being thrifty. Let me say that I have had business relations only with those affairs in which I had a personal connection, and so was, in a measure, forced to help to protect myself. Thus the mail--it was the only way I could get my mail oftener than once a year, and so make my parents more reconciled to my being here. Of the freight landed, some 18 or 20 tons belonged to me, to say nothing of the reindeer herders' needs, or the school-house whose commodious rooms were needed. When the Laura Madsen finally wrecked the next year, and with from $2,000 to $5,000 worth of material marketable here, I did not even make a bid directly or indirectly upon the wreck of the Laura Madsen, though it went for the meager sum of $100. When Captain Cook brought the Laura Madsen here that year, as he came by Wainwright he could not get far enough into the inlet to unload the house there, on account of ice, and he was very anxious to have me help him unload that house also here at Barrow, so he could hurry out of the Arctic and its ice and save his ship....