36 On the Rein-Deer. 



speed of the rein-deer, I shall state what I know from my own 

 experience, and the information of those on whom I can rely. 

 Taking a general view of my subsequent journey thrcrugh Lap- 

 land, it will be seen, though it may be estimated at about 330 

 miles, that it was performed with only two deer. The distance be- 

 tween Alten and Koutokeino is about 150 miles, and it was ac- 

 complished with one deer in four days. This is unusually slow 

 travelling; but it will be easily accounted for, by the bad wea- 

 ther We experienced, and the slate of the snow. This distance, 

 however, has been travelled repeatedly in a far shorter space of 

 time. Mr Aargaard once returned from Koutokeino to Alten, 

 towards the spring, when the sledging is nearly at an end, in 

 twenty-four hours, with only a single deer; and Mr Klerck, 

 who resides at the latter place, performed the same journey 

 twice in thirteen hours, and once in fourteen, employing three 

 deer : which will be considered very fast travelling, particularly 

 by those who are acquainted with his. weight. 



The distance between Koutokeino and Alten has even been 

 performed in a space of time still shorter than what has been 

 just mentioned, by two other merchants of my acquaintance, 

 who, returning from Tornea to Alten, where they had been on 

 commercial business, on reaching Koutokeino, made the journey 

 across the mountain range in nineteen hours with only one deer, 

 the distance, as before stated, being 150 miles. To have ac- 

 eomplislied this, the animal must have kept up an average pace 

 of eight miles an hour the whole way, allowing no time for rest- 

 ing. The greatest instance, however, on record, of the speed of 

 this animal, though it appears little short of an impossibility, is 

 that of the rein-deer, of which a portrait, with that of its driver, 

 is yet preserved in the palace of Drottningholm ; though how 

 far it has been authenticated, it would be difficult to ascertain. 

 The case I here allude to occurred in the year 1699, upon the 

 frontiers of Norway. In consequence of the Norwegians mak- 

 ing a sudden and unexpected irruption into the Swedish terri- 

 tories, an officer was despatched with a sledge and rein-deer to 

 Stockholm, to convey the intelligence ; which he did with such 

 speed, that he performed 124 Swedish miles (about 800 Eng- 

 lish) ir^ 48 hours : but his faithful animal dropped down lifeless 



