On the Rein-Deer. 37 



on the Riddarhustorget, just after his arrival in the capital. 

 The bearer of the news, as it is said, was in consequence en- 

 nobled, and assumed the name of Rehnstjerna (Rein-deer Star). 

 The second part of our journey from Routokeino to Muonio- 

 niska, in Russia, which is rather a greater distance than the pre- 

 ceding, was performed in two days and a half, the weather be- 

 ing good, the snow in better order, and the country over which 

 we passed far more favourable to expedition, from the general 

 flatness of it. Neither of these journeys, however, is a fair speci- 

 men of what a rein-deer can really perform in point of speed, 

 though the first may be considered as a proof of its strength and 

 endurance, under very disadvantageous circumstances. It is 

 well known, besides, what delays are necessarily attendant upon 

 a large number of persons travelling together, and with what 

 greater ease and facility a smaller party makes its way, unin- 

 cumbered with much baggage, and dependent only upon itself. 

 It is difficult, indeed, to state, to what degree a rein-deer, under 

 every favourable circumstance of its own powers, state of snow, 

 weather, nature of ground, or ice, weight it has to draw, &c. can 

 extend its speed. 



As the distance, however, between Alten and Koutokeino, 

 which is a continued chain of lofty mountains, and most diffi- 

 cult to pass, has been performed in less than twenty hours, it 

 is certain that, if the powers of the deer had been exerted on 

 different ground, such as the hard surface of a river, a far 

 greater space might have been accomplished in the same time. 

 Ten miles are the utmost I have ever performed in an hour, 

 and it was done at a trot, without putting the deer once into a 

 gallop. I think, however, that a deer, with a hght weight and 

 pulk, on the best ground^ might be made to perform not far 

 short of double this distance at a gallop, though it would not 

 be able to keep it up at farthest more than an hour. The most 

 accurate account of the speed of the rein-deer is furaished us by 

 Pictet, who, when he visited the northern parts of Lapland, in 

 1769, for the purpose of observing the transit of Venus, was 

 curious to ascertain the point ; and having accordingly mea^- 

 sured a certain distance, he started four rein-deer, with their 

 drivers, in very light sledges. The following he states as the 

 results : 



