Jonich 1953 Eskimo Notes Point Barrow, Alaska May 22 Some baleen is used, however, in the household as binding material. I'll have to find out more about this. At one time the eskimos were provided with reindeer from Asia to supplement their economy - shipped by boat and train across the Atlantic and also States, and also driven on the ice across the Bering Straits I understand - but these domesticated herds have largely or totally escaped. After all the eski- mo is essentially a hunter and who wants to be miles from the sea ice when the whales are sporting out in the lead? The reindeer (Rangifer arctica) is said to interbreed with caribou (Rangifer caribou) so the population may be mixed in some of the coastal areas of Alaska. Native caribou seldom come to the sea but are perhaps a hundred miles inland. There are many in the regions south of the Brooks Range, even in the vicinity of Fairbanks. They were migrating and calving 85 miles out on the Steese Highway from Fairbanks last week when I went through: