Across The Frozen North

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 280, 26 November 1938, Page 4 (Supplement)

Across The Frozen North

(By JAMES BOSWELL.)

For nearly five years—quite recently—a group of men worked hard to drive a herd of reindeer right •cross Northern Canada. Month after month) until the months grew into years, they slowly shepherded the dee- across frozen tundra, through rivers, and over the vast open plains of the MacKenzie region in the north of Canada.

For many years tie wild herds of caribou that once swarmed the Frozen North have been growin ff smaller, as the population of those places increases. Eskimos rely on them for their very lives, for the caribou provides both clothing and food. So the shortage was having a Tery bad effect and the Government of Canada, realising the sorry plight of the 7000 Eskimos within its country, set to work to help them. Now, nearly 40 years before the American Government had brought 1200 reindeer across from Siberia to Alaska, and they had increased to nearly 250,000, and had spread all oyer Alaska. The Canadians, profit•

ing by this lee son, decided to populate the desolate North with deer from Alaska.

A survey party was. sent out first to examine the country, and it travelled 15,000 miles in two and a half yea re. The explorers met all kinds of hardships and difficulties, but eventually arrived back to report that there was plenty of room and food for reindeer in the Arctic regions of Canada.

Then the Government brought three families over from Lapland, on the North Baltic, and bought 3000 head of reindeer from a firm in Alaska. The reindeer were, of course, carefully selected so that the long trek would injure them as little as possible. It took several weeks to round them up, and in the depth of the Arctic winter the long drive began.

The herders had expected the task to be a difficult one, but the dangers and the hardships were even greater than they had anticipated. The first trouble was caused by wolves, which, during the whole journey, destroyed hundreds of the deer. Then they had to work hard all the time to prevent their charges from breaking back to their Alaskan pastures—for deer hare a strong homing instinct.

After one storm it took six months to round up the scattered herd, and hundreds of square miles had to be scoured. Day and night the herders worked throughout the whole five years, in 12-hour shift*. One winter there was a 102 degree frost, hut they had to keep busy. Every year the party had to camp for three or four months in the early spring and summer for the young reindeer, or fawns, to be born and grow strong enough to travel. Even some of the hardy deer were frozen to death in the blizzards, while others were buried deep in snow drifts and had to 'be dug out. December, 1933, found them only 200 miles from their destination, with the route ahead level and the snow in good condition. But that final 200 miles took a year to cover. Only half of the original herd ever reached their new home on the eastern side of the great MacKenzie River. But the calves born on the way made the number up to its original strength. So the Lapp herder, Andrew Bahr, with his British, Lapp and Eskimo assistants, handed over his charges in good order five years after they had been put in his care. More than that, he brought life and prosperity to thousands of people in the Frozen North.