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On pages 2369-2371 the tables show, station by station, the names of the apprentices and the number of deer which they have acquired in accordance with the rules above given. The summary on page 2371 shows that there are 68 Eskimos owning in the aggregate 2,841 deer, but there are 61 apprentices that have not yet acquired the ownership of deer under the rules. The apprentice must show by his persistence and good judgment, continued for years, that he can be intrusted with deer. The first teachers for the Eskimo apprentices were natives of Siberia, but as they were very little advanced in civilization above the Eskimos it was considered advisable to send to Norway for skilled Lapland herders for the reindeer. There being no public fund available to meet the expense of sending an agent to Norway to select and secure these herders, recourse was again had by the general agent of education, Doctor Jackson, to the private benefaction of friends of the enterprise, and $1,000 were secured."

How can the natives of Alaska be made valuable helpers and assistants in the development of the country by white men now there engaged in mining, and in doing so provide a good support for themselves and families?

Any successful method of accomplishing such desirable results must keep clearly in view the aim to prepare the natives to become a help to the immigrants who come from the States for the purpose of conducting mining operations. There are two things which the native may be taught to do which will enable him to help the immigrant: First, he may be taught how to create a supply of cheap food and clothing suitable to the arctic climate; second, he may be taught how to supply a cheap transportation by means of reindeer. It is known that in the river valleys certain garden vegetables may be produced in large quantities, even up to the Arctic Circle and for 50 miles beyond it.

The experience of the past twelve years has proved that he can also become skillfu! in raising reindeer for food. With the gradual disappearance of the caribou and moose in sections of Alaska, and the difficulty and expense of bringing beef and mutton from the States to the inland mining camps, it is of great importance that the Eskimo be trained to raise reindeer with which to supply the immigrant miner with fresh meat.

The Eskimo has always been skillful in driving dogs, and now, under instruction, he is proving equally skillful in driving reindeer, and upon various occasions, when the opportunity has offered, has invariably demonstrated his ability to successfully transport with reindeer mails, freight, and passengers between mining camps.

a The contributors to this fund were Mrs. William Thaw, of Pittsburg, $350; Mrs. Elliott F. Shepard, New York, $250; Miss Mary L. Kennedy, New York, $200; Mr. John Nicholas Brown, Providence, R. I., $100; Mr. H. O. Houghton, Boston, $50, and Mrs. Helen Sinclair Robinson, of the Hawaiian Islands, $50; making in all, $1,000.

When the native has thus become useful to the white man by supplying the markets with fish and fresh meat, and when he has become herdsman and teamster with reindeer, he has not only assisted the white man in solving the problem of turning to the use of civilization the vast territory of Alaska, but he has also solved his own problem. If useful to the white man as a self-respecting and industrious citizen, he has become a permanent stay and prop to civilization, and his future is provided for.

The reindeer will prove equally important to the white man who may seek a home or engage in business in subarctic Alaska.

In the development of the rich mineral resources of that region the miner will find the reindeer and the Eskimo herder and teamster the connecting link between himself and the resources of nature-for his comfort and for his profit.

His

The ordinary white man is unwilling to undergo the drudgery of herding in that rigorous climate, and unwilling to work for the small compensation that is paid for such services. He can do better. directive ability can be more profitably employed as merchant and manager of transportation, in employing and directing the trained Eskimo herders and teamsters.

With the increase of domestic reindeer in Alaska it will become possible for white men to own large herds, but the men that will do the herding and teaming will always be Eskimos, Laplanders, and Finlanders.

Thus the Eskimo, trained as herder or teamster, will prove valuable to the white man, and the white man in turn, as director and employer, will be valuable to the native.

As the reindeer is the only draft animal in arctic regions that is able to secure its own food while on a journey, the question of cheapness and speed will bring it into universal use.

They will carry passengers, mails, and freight between the mining camps and the trunk railways that will yet penetrate Alaska.

Now, the object of the reindeer enterprise is to convert the nomadic tribes of fishers and hunters in northwestern and central Alaska into raisers of reindeer; to change their occupation from the precarious pursuits of hunting wild animals and of taking fish from the waters of inland rivers to that of herders and teamsters; to elevate a people who in their wild, uncivilized state are the prey of unscrupulous, transient immigrants into a self-supporting race, not enemies, but friendly allies and auxiliaries of the white man.

Young Eskimo men are selected and placed in these schools for a period of five years under skillful Finn or Lapp instructors, who drill them in the business. The apprentice during his five years of training is supported and clothed either by the Government, the mission station, or a herder, according as he is employed by one or the other of

these parties. In addition to food and clothing, he is allowed the loan of two female deer per year, upon which he may place his mark, and consider the herd as his private property, subject to Government control with reference to slaughter and sale. After the close of the second year of apprenticeship these deer are retained in the general herd under the care of an experienced Lapp or Finn and under the supervision of the mission station with which the herder is connected. This general supervision extends for twenty years. This extended period of tutelage is to create in the young Eskimos thrift and the reindeer habit to teach them to preserve and accumulate their herds, to keep them in groups for self-protection, encouragement, and emulation, and to exercise a paternal oversight over them in their new civilization.

If, however, during this period of twenty years the herder indulges in a protracted season of intemperance, abandons or otherwise fails to care for the herd, the Government is at liberty to dispossess him of its loan and the increase thereof and reloans the same to other parties who may give evidence of making a better use of the loan. This works no injustice to the individual herder, as the herder during the five years of his apprenticeship has had from the Government or missionary station regular food and substantial clothing, far better than he would have had if he had remained away from the herd. The same is true after the years of his apprenticeship are ended--he will continue to receive food and clothing from his herd instead of the Government. When an apprentice becomes a herder he is expected to secure the support of himself and family by the sale of surplus male deer to butchers and miners, and expected to train some other apprentice. In most cases this subapprentice is some member of the herder's family. The reindeer are held by their owners subject to the conditions of a written agreement with the United States, which prevents the slaughter of the female deer for meat and the sale of female deer to any other party than the Government, and insures the instruction of apprentices in the arts of training and breaking the deer to harness. Surplus male deer are allowed to be sold to miners or others for meat or transportation purposes.

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New reindeer stations established.--In view of the failure of the annual mail and food supply to reach Barrow in the fall of 1903, it was decided to establish an additional reindeer station at the southern edge of the summer ice fields on the arctic coast, and Wainwright Inlet was selected.

Three Eskimo herders at Point Barrow, with a total of 220 reindeer, have been sent to stock the new station. Building material was also forwarded for a new reindeer station to be established in the neighborhood of Hope (Kivilenya River), midway between Bering Strait and Point Barrow. Two apprentices, with 135 deer, have been sent to open this station.

With the rapid increase of the herds arrangements have been consummated for the establishment of two additional central stations-the one at Bettles, in the interior of Alaska, north of the Arctic Circle, on the Koyukuk, the great northern tributary of the Yukon River, 720 miles to the eastward of Nome, and the other at Copper Center, about 105 miles north of Valdez, on Prince William Sound.

Libraries in the United States.-The subject of libraries will be found treated at considerable length in Chapter XVIII (pp. 759–1017). The statistics were collected in the latter part of the year 1903. They show that there are in the United States 6,869 public, society, and school libraries having each 1,000 or more volumes, the same being an increase of 1,486 in the number of libraries since 1900. The 6,869 libraries have an aggregate of 54,419,002 volumes, an increase of 9,827,151 volumes, or 22 per cent, since 1900.

The North Atlantic division of States has 3,006 of the 6,869 public, society, and school libraries of the United States, and 27,805,980 of the 54,414,002 bound volumes, also 5,281,714 of the 9,314,913 unbound pamphlets reported.

The number of libraries supported by public taxation or appropriations is 3,148.

Statistics of libraries have been collected by this Office in the years. 1875, 1885, 1891, 1896, 1900, and 1903. Table 11 (on page 775) is historical, showing the number of libraries and the number of inhabitants per library for each of the years mentioned.

In 1875 each library supplied an average of 21,432 persons, while in 1903 there was a library to every 11,632 persons, showing that the number of libraries had increased twice as rapidly as the population. Table 12 (page 776) is also historical, showing the aggregate number of volumes and the number to each 100 persons in the years mentioned. The increase in volumes in twenty-eight years, considered in relation to the growth in population, has been at even a greater rate than the increase in number of libraries. In 1875 the libraries had 11,487,778 volumes, or 26 to the 100 persons of the population, while in 1903, thirty-three years later, there were 54,419,002 volumes, or 68 to the 100

persons. While the population increased 83 per cent in twenty-eight years, the number of books accessible to the people increased 374 per

cent.

The stimulus given to library development by the benefactions of Mr. Andrew Carnegie is recognized in this rapid increase by every one interested in the subject. There are in the United States nearly a thousand libraries which owe their existence in the main or in some part to the gifts of Mr. Carnegie."

Normal schools (Chapter XXXVI, pp. 1753–1811). The number of students pursuing teachers' training courses in the several classes of institutions for the year 1902-3 was 88,003. This was a decrease of 6,143 from the number reported for the preceding year, although there was an increase of 23 in the number of institutions reporting. In all public institutions there were 58,837 normal students, 49,175 of these being in public normal schools. In all private institutions there were 29,166 normal students, 14,939 of these being in private normal schools. Private universities and colleges alone show an increase in the enrollment of normal students over the preceding year. The following table shows the number and classes of institutions offering professional instruction to teachers and the number of normal students in each class for the last four years:

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a From the Library Journal for January, 1905, page 23, I copy the following table:

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