much to reclaim for hay, being soaked in humic acid, that we
had always to import that commodity at a cost which made more cows
than absolutely essential very inadvisable. Weasels, rats, hawks, and
vermin needed a man's whole time if our chickens were to be properly
guarded and repay keeping at all. An alfalfa sent us from Washington
did well, and potatoes also gave a fair return, though our summer
frosts often destroyed whole patches of the latter. Our imported plum
and crabapple trees were ringed by mice beneath the snow in winter. At
a farm which we cleared nine miles up a bay, so as to have it removed
from the polar current, our oats never ripened, and our turnips and
cabbage did not flourish in every case. We could not plant early
enough, owing to the ground being frozen till July some years.

On the other hand, when we looked at the hundreds of thousands of
square miles on which caribou could live and increase without any help
from man, and indeed in spite of all his machinations, our attention
was naturally turned to reindeer farming, and I went to Washington to
consult Dr. Sheldon Jackson, the Presbyterian missionary from Alaska.
It was he who had pioneered the introduction by the United States
Government of domestic reindeer into Alaska. At Washington we received
nothing but encouragement. Reindeer could make our wilderness smile.
They would cost only the protection necessary. They multiply steadily,
breeding every year for eight or ten years after their second season.
A selected herd should double itself every three years.

The skins are very valuable--there is no better nonconductor of heat.
The centre of the hair is not a hollow cylinder, but a series of air
bubbles which do not soak water, and therefore can be used with
advantage for life-saving cushions. The skins are splendid also for
motor robes, and now invaluable in the air service. The meat is tender
and appetizing, and sold as a game delicacy in New York. The deer
fatten well on the abundant mosses of a country such as ours.

Sir William MacGregor, the Governor of Newfoundland at the time, had
samples of the mosses collected around the coast and sent to Kew
Botanical Gardens for positive identification. The Cladonia
Rangiferina, or Iceland moss, proved very abundant. It was claimed,
however, that the reindeer would eat any of such plants and shrubs as
our coast offers in summer.

As long ago as the year 1903 my interest in the domestication of dee