SCIENCE AND TRAVEL

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 70, 6 June 1930, Page 8

SCIENCE AND TRAVEL

WHEN THE REINDEER TREK. A GIGANTIC MIGRATION ACROSS ARCTIC SNOWS IS GOING ON NOW. ■All Rights Reserved.) Eskimos in the Yukon today are privileged to see ca remarkable sight twelve hundred reindeer trekking across the Arctic snows. From Nome, in Alaska, to the mouth of the Mackenzie River is a distance of some fifteen hundred miles. The r.-Indoor are part of a huge purchase made by (he Dominion government of Canada. They are travelling on the hoof to their new country, making a trek of that may last two years. Herders in sleighs drawn by domesticated reindeer are showing the way, guiding the great migration. When the reindeer arrive at the MaeKenzie della a new industry will begin there. An increasing number of eskimos will give up their precarious hunting arid fishing, and earn their living instead by farming reindeer. The reindeer is among the most useflil of this earth’s creatures.

Its flesh is esteemed above beef ■and mutton, and its skin makes shoes and a hundred other kinds of leather goods. Reindeer were domesticated in early days by the Lapps, but there was not a single reindeer—wild or domesticated—in the continent of America as recently as 1892. The beginning was made in. that year by the importation of 171 specimens across the Bering Sea on the Revenue Cutter “Bear.”

The first importations were the result of the wisdom and fore-sight of,two officials who visited the native villages along the Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean in 1890.

There was strange contrast between the conditions existing on the two sides of the Bering Straits. On the Siberian side the people were prosperous and contented, a state of affairs for which the chief credit was given to their ownership of large herds of reindeeer. In Alaska the condition of the natives was pitiful, because of too-general dependence on uncertain catches of whales, seals and walrus.

Immediate steps were taken to introduce the animals. For. ten years the cutter “Bear” made periodical trips between Siberia and Alaska, transporting reindeer to new homes. With the aid of the “Thetis,” a sister ship, the vessel brought a total of 1280 head —the nucleus from which Ihe Alaskan herds have -grown, to their present staggering size. The growth has come about through careful attention and the laws of natural increase. No further importations were necessary. The 360,000 animals of today are distributed in 110 herds scattered along the coast regions of the northern and western parts of the territory Single herds contain as many as 8,000 animals. Canadian authorities see no reason why this history of the founding of a great industry should not be repeated at the Mackenzie River.

The industry provides products of varied- character. The chief item, of course, is. that of furnishing a new moat supply.

tinder the old conditions the natives had no meat other than that which was available from rapidly disappearing game. Existence was primitive and rations were scant. Today finds. Alaska an important source of meat supply for the United States as well as for its own population.

Reindeer meat is sold in the American market in the fenn of steaks, roasts and chops, and is made into holonga and Ibe various other combinations in which beef and veal are employed.

The bides, too,* have an extensive market, in addition to furnishing clothing for the natives and their families.

In handling the meat supply the herdsmen have been able to take advantage of natural facilities for cold storage. Within the ureas adjoining the Arctic const there is an abundance of solid ice which is reached by digging not more than three or four feet below the surface of the ground. This natural cold-storage plant extends downwards to great depth, and provides facilities for keeping meat in fresh condition. A recent excavation opened up a single chamber large enough to hold a hundred carcasses, and to keep them in perfect condition for several months.

Cheap transportation is another factor of importance, for the reindeer are independent of the usual channels of transport. Besides providing meat and other merchandise, the animals furnish the means of sending the commodities to market.

The system of transport involves the use of sleds drawn by reindeer broken, to harness. An animal’s first adventure hi harness is apt to he a fierce and unguided run away, with sled (railing behind. After that the breaking process is a simple matter. In his first gallop the animal is allowed to run till he is exhausted. From that time forward ho is a dependabe hauler of sleds.