THE TUNDRA 113 



reindeer, the sound produced by the striking together 

 of their antlers, the swift canoes dashing in amongst 

 them, the terror of the frightened animals, the danger 

 of the hunters, the shouts of warning advice or applause 

 from their friends, the blood-stained water, and all the 

 accompanying circumstances, form a whole which no 

 one can picture to himself without having witnessed 

 the scene." 



The tundra has no more characteristic animal than 

 the reindeer. Over the mossy hillocks and the matted 

 tops of the dwarf birches he runs, or through the rivers 

 and lakes he swims, with his broad-hoofed, spade-like 

 feet never at a loss to find a footing. In the long 

 winter he is protected by his thick skin against the 

 influence of the cold, and is seldom at starvation point, 

 as he digs for food in the deepest snow, and is by no 

 means particular what he eats ; and in the short 

 summer he is in luxurious ease, for the tundra, as we 

 have seen, is not always as bad as it is painted. In 

 exposed places near the coast it is little else than 

 gravel beds interspersed with patches of peat and 

 clay, with scarcely a rush or a sedge to break the 

 monotony, but by far the greater part of it is a gently 

 undulating plain, broken up by lakes, rivers, swamps, 

 and bogs ; the lakes with patches of green water- 

 plants, the rivers flowing between sedges and rushes, 

 the swamps the breeding haunts of ruffs and phala- 

 ropes, the bogs dotted with the white fluffy seeds of 

 the cotton-grass. Almost everywhere the birds are in 

 noticeable numbers, among the commonest being the 

 golden plover (who wears the tundra colours), the blue- 

 throat, the fieldfare, the whooper swan, and the 



