t the hospital in summer
we could afford to kill a deer. The milk was excellent in quality and
sweet, and preserved perfectly well in rubber-capped bottles. The
cheese was nourishing and a welcome addition to the local diet. At the
close of the fourth year we had a thousand deer.

A paper of the serious standing of the "Wall Street Journal," writing
at about that time, under the title "Reindeer Venison from Alaska,"
had this to say: "At different times in the past twenty years the
Government imported reindeer into Alaska--about twelve hundred in
all--in hopes to provide food for the natives in the future. The plan
caused some amusement and some criticism at the time. Subsequent
developments, however, have justified the attempt. The herds have now
increased to about forty thousand animals, and are rapidly becoming
still more numerous. The natives own about two thirds of the number.
Shipments of meat have been made to the Pacific Coast cities. Last
year the sales of venison and skins amounted to $25,000. It is claimed
that the vast tundra, or treeless frozen plains of Alaska, will
support at least ten million animals. The federal authorities in
charge are so optimistic of the future outlook that the prediction is
made that within twenty-five years the United States can draw a
considerable part of its meat supply from Alaska." What can be done in
Alaska can be done in Labrador, and with its better facilities for
shipping and handling the product, the greater future ought to be the
prize of the latter country.

In the spring of 1912 there were five hundred fawns, and at one time
we had gathered into our corral for tagging no less than twelve
hundred and fifty reindeer. Of these we sold fifty to the Government
of Canada for the Peace River District. There they were lost because
they were placed in a flat country, densely wooded with alders, and
not near the barren lands. We also sold a few to clubs, in order to
try and introduce the deer. These sales would have done the experiment
no injury, but with the fifty to Canada went my chief herder and two
of my other herders from Labrador. This loss, from which we never
recovered, coincided with an outbreak of hostility toward the deer
among the resident population, who live entirely on the sea edge. Only
long afterwards did we find out that it was partly because they feared
that we would force deer upon them and do away with their dogs. The
local Government official told me only