A broken circle brand on the left flank one year after branding. Branding with a hot iron is now being practiced in six of the Alaskan herds

Herding cabins, especially on winter range, are preferable to tents. Several of these camps variously located over the range are needed on every growing allotment

Tents are resorted to by the reindeer herders when cabins are not provided. They serve solely as temperary shelter and are not so satisfactory as cabins

boundaries, but most of the units will have a carrying capacity of 5,000 to 10,000 reindeer. Accordingly, the future herds in Alaska will run from 5,000 to 10,000 heads, or an average of 7,500.

Large grazing allotments will make possible the establishment of cooperative herds among numerous small owners, and this will result in the formation of many cooperative reindeer associations, or livestock companies, especially among the Eskimos.

HERDING

Reindeer are now herded almost entirely on foot, mainly by natives and Lapps, commonly aided by dogs. One or two herders go out each day from a central camp to watch the herd, sometimes remaining out over night. Horses for herding are employed to some extent in the interior but have yet to be tried along the coast. Sled reindeer and dog teams are used during the winter for hauling camp supplies; in summer, transportation is largely by boat and on

foot.

ROUND-UPS

The herds are rounded up for marking or branding and castration early in summer, usually in July. Again, in fall and early in winter-October, November, and December-they are rounded up for butchering. During the middle of the winter another round-up may take place for separating mixed herds or breeding and nonbreeding stock. All handling was formerly done by roping on the open range or in a crude brush corral. Now, however, the corral and chute method has come into more general use, and roping is being abandoned (pl. 5).

CORRALS

Two methods of corralling are employed, one using the chute, the other the pen. For efficient work with the chute a large force of men is necessary, whereas the pen has the advantage of requiring only a small crew. When the chute is used, all the animals are driven through and caught at the end (pl. 6). When the pen is used, the animals are handled in a central working pen and those to be marked or otherwise handled are captured by means of sheep hooks.

A diagram of a corral of the pen type successfully in use at Kokrines, Alaska, is shown in Figure 2. With this corral a crew of five men has marked reindeer fawns at the rate of 750 a day. A highly successful type of corral of the chute method, and the type most commonly used, is shown in Figure 3. With a crew of 15 men, reindeer may be handled in a corral of this kind at the rate of 125 to 175 an hour.

In erecting the type of corral shown in Figure 3, it is very important to construct the entrance hook leading to the holding pens and chute on the side of the corral meeting the direction of mill. This may be either to the right or to the left depending upon the individual herd. One herd will not mill both ways, always going either clockwise, or counterclockwise. It is therefore necessary to note the direction of mill in order so to construct the entrance hook as to intercept the milling animals and facilitate their capture. Two

hooks, one on each side of the corral, may, of course, be constructed, but only one is needed if the direction of milling be known. It is easy to drive the reindeer into a hook properly placed, but difficult to drive them into a hook not opening toward direction of the mill. Of 25 herds observed in respect to milling, 3 were found always to mill counterclockwise and the remainder clockwise.

HOLDING PASTURE

A recent improvement for handling reindeer when the corral is used at round-up time is a holding pasture adjoining the corral. As the Alaska herds increase in size the use of a holding pasture will become more and more necessary. It not only insures convenient holding of the herd at the round-up but makes it more possible to handle a large herd at one time without starving the animals. The main herd is confined in the pasture on feed and water, and, from time to time as needed, bunches are cut out and driven into the

FIG. 2.-Diagram of corral of the pen type successfully used at Kokrines, Alaska. The reindeer are handled in the working pen and the fawns are caught by use of sheep hooks

corral for handling. Thus, except for the relatively brief time when they are being put through the corral, the reindeer are abundantly provided with feed and water in the holding pasture during the round-up period.

BRANDING

Reindeer are mostly marked by cutting off the tip of one ear or notching one or both of them. Some herd owners have used a metal ear tag or button in addition to cutting, but this kind of marking is being abandoned as unsatisfactory. Because of the numerous marks required to distinguish the many small owners, ear marking also has its limitations. Consequently, the organization of cooperative herds under one mark or brand is now being urged, and branding with a hot iron supplemental to ear marking is being considered. Experimental branding has been conducted in several herds and where carefully performed has proved sufficiently satisfactory to

warrant adoption (pl. 7). Branding, usually on the flank, is now being initiated and will undoubtedly become a more general method. A brand law for Alaska recently adopted provides for the marking or branding of reindeer and the registration of the brand or mark.

NATURE OF THE RANGE

RANGE BELTS

There are three distinct range belts of different uses: (1) The immediate coast region, including the islands; (2) the farinterior country; and (3) an intermediate region, which may be termed the inland-coast or coastal-valley belt. In the coast region,

FIG. 3.-Highly successful corral of the chute type. It is important that the leadway into the holding pens be constructed on the side of the corral to meet the direction in which the herd mills. The movable wire-burlap fence is very useful in cutting off bunches of stock from the main herd

the summer range of mostly tundra flats lies immediately along the coast, and the winter range lies inland on the coast uplands of hills and mountains. In the far interior the grazing lands are in the mountains, and the reindeer usually summer on the mountain tops and winter either on adjoining protected and favorably exposed areas or on lower ground near timber line. In the intermediate, coastalvalley belt, as in the Kuskokwim, Yukon, and Kobuk River Valleys, the reindeer may summer either along the valley flats and bench lands or on the mountain tops, and winter in the middle, usually timbered, zone between the upper and lower elevations.

The chief factors determining the seasonal range areas are (1) forage, (2) exposure, (3) the fly pest, (4) the physical character of