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Updated: June 22, 2025
Nor was the summer expedition free from its dangers and difficulties. The party consisted of fifty men, who travelled on foot; about a hundred dogs followed, laden with the baggage that was to be transported over barren mountains and through morasses; and often, after all their exertions and deprivations, they got very few rein-deer.
Therefore they embarked, carrying with them two thousand weight of rein-deer fat, many hides of the same animals, the skins of the blue and white foxes and bears they had killed. Neither did they neglect to carry away their spears, their knife and axe, which were almost worn out, or their awls and needles, which were carefully preserved in a box, very ingeniously made of bone.
Let schools be established and supported by Government not mere common schools, where reading, writing, arithmetic, and perhaps some of the higher branches may be taught; but training and industrial schools. Where the soil or climate is unfit for husbandry, other means of improving their condition might be resorted to. In the barren grounds, bordering on the Arctic regions, rein-deer still abound.
The Norwegian examined these marks with much minuteness; and when he had satisfied himself that they were the hoof-prints of the rein-deer, and not of the smaller cows of the country, he thrust his hand into the salt-bag that was still suspended from his left side, like a good-sized rook's nest, and vociferated, "Salt, h-o-o-o! salt, h-o-o-o! salt! salt!"
This was accomplished, in a certain degree, by soaking the skins in water until the hair could be rubbed off, and then putting rein-deer fat upon them. The leather, by such a process, became soft and pliant.
Wentzel says that the Dog-rib Indians go in pairs to kill rein-deer, the foremost carrying in one hand the horns and part of the skin of a head of the deer, and in the other, a small bundle of twigs, against which he, from time to time, rubs the horns, as the deers do.
Opponent to us, on the extreme side, or eastern corner of this pool, the even surface of the mountain rose into a hill which, being higher than the ground where we stood, obstructed our view. The rein-deer had frequently resorted to this water to drink, for the mud of its diminutive shore was everywhere indented with their hooves.
The extreme fondness of the rein-deer for salt cannot be better exemplified; for this animal had followed us from her natural abode on the top of the mountain to its base, and could not have performed a lesser journey than twenty miles.
The difficulty of conveying glass into the interior has precluded its use in the windows, where its place is poorly supplied by parchment, imperfectly made by the native women from the skin of the rein-deer. Should this post, however, continue to be the residence of Governor Williams, it will be much improved in a few years, as he is devoting his attention to that point.
When this material is wanting, the rein-deer lichen and other mosses that grow in profusion on the gravelly acclivities of the hills are used as substitutes. Three more of the hunters arrived with meat this evening, which supply came very opportunely as our nets were unproductive. At eight P.M., a faint Aurora Borealis appeared to the southward, the night was cold, the wind strong from N.W.
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