tter was brought to the attention of the President, who
immediately called a Cabinet council, at which it was decided to send a
relief expedition to these men.

The plan is to charter a steam-whaler, the _Thrasher_, which is now at
San Francisco, and send her with provisions and clothing to Port
Clarence, which you will find marked just below Cape Prince of Wales,
the most easterly point of our continent, which bounds the Bering
Straits on the American side.

If it is impossible to get so far north as this, it is proposed to put
in at Norton Sound, on which St. Michaels is situated, the port which
has come into so much prominence lately through the discovery of gold on
the Klondike.

Whichever of these points can be reached, it is purposed to send the
provisions across Alaska to Point Barrow by reindeer.

There is a reindeer station at Point Clarence, and so it would be better
to reach this spot if possible; but the captain of the revenue-cutter
_Bear_, which cruises in Alaskan waters, says that there is too much ice
already for it to be possible to reach either Port Clarence or St.
Michaels.

The reindeer will, however, be used when other means of travelling are
impossible, and they will bring the supplies to the imprisoned whalers.

There are at present eleven hundred head of deer in Alaska, all in a
healthy and thriving condition.

Last December, the superintendent of the reindeer station at Port
Clarence thought he would try and see just how useful these beasts could
be made, and whether it would be possible, by their aid, to establish
communication between Arctic Alaska and civilization.

He took with him nine sleds, seventeen reindeer, and two Lapp teamsters.

[Illustration: REINDEER TEAM. _From Photograph Taken in Alaska._]

Here is his description of the trip:

"The journey was a very difficult one. Barren mountains whose sides
had been swept bare by blizzards, and ravines which held deep
snowdrifts, had to be crossed. The icy waters of mountain torrents had
to be forded; sometimes a way had to be cut with axes through tangled
undergrowth. The cold was intense, sometimes 73 deg. below zero."

Though reindeer moss was found in sufficient quantities throughout the
entire trip, at one time the party was storm-bound on the mountains, and
the animals were thirty-six hours without food.

The hardy creatures suffered no permanent injury from this long fast,
and their skins, thickly covered with long hair