MAMMALIA— REINDEER. 347 



of woods and morasses, which are no longer to be seen. Gaul, under the 

 same latitude as Canada, was, two thousand years ago, what Canada is at 

 the present time ; that is, a climate cold enough for these animals to live 

 in. We find him in America, in the highest latitudes, because the cold is 

 greater there than in Europe. The reindeer can bear even the most exces- 

 sive cold. He is found in Spitsbergen ; he is common in Greenland, and in 

 the most northern parts of Lapland. 



The reindeer is shorter and more squat than the stag ; his legs are shorter 

 and thicker, and his feet wider ; the hair very thickly furnished, and his 

 antlers much longer, and divided into a greater number of branches, with 

 flat terminations. The reindeer is become domestic among the enlightened 

 part of mankind. The Laplanders have no other beast. In this icy climate, 

 which only receives the oblique rays of the sun — where there is a seasoD 

 of night as well as day — where the snow covers the earth from the begin- 

 ning of autumn, as well as spring, and where the verdure of the summer 

 consists in the bramble, juniper, and moss, could man form any idea but 

 of famine ? The horse, the ox, the sheep, all our useful animals, find no sub- 

 sistence there, nor can they resist the rigor of the cold. He has been obliged 

 to search among the inhabitants of the forest, for the least wild and most 

 profitable animals. The Laplanders have done what ourselves should do : 

 if we were to lose our cattle, we should then be obliged to tame the stag 

 and roebucks of forests, to supply their place ; and I am persuaded wr 

 should gain our point, and we should presently learn to draw as much utility 

 from them, as the Laplanders do from the reindeer. We ought to be sensi- 

 ble, by this example, how far nature has extended her liberality towards us. 

 We do not make use of all the riches which she offers us ; the fund is 

 much more immense than we imagine. She has bestowed on us the horse, 

 the ox, the sheep, and all our other domestic animals, to serve us, to feed 

 us, and to clothe us ; and she has, besides, species in reserve which would 

 be able to supply this defect, and which would only require us to subject 

 them, and to make them useful to our wants. 



Man does not sufficiently know what nature can do, nor what can be 

 done with her. Instead of seeking for what he does not know, he likes 

 better to abuse her in what he does know. 



In comparing the advantages which the Laplanders derive from the tame 

 reindeer, with those which we derive from our domestic animals, we shall 

 see that this animal is worth two or three of them. He is used as horses are, 

 to draw sledges and other carriages; he travels with great speed and swift- 

 ness ; he easily goes a hundred miles a day, and runs with as much certain- 

 ty upon the frozen snow as upon the mossy down. The female affords 

 milk, more substantial and more nourishing than the cow ; the flesh is very 

 good to eat, the coat makes an excellent fur, and his dressed hide becomes 

 a very supple and a very durable leather. Spoons are also made of his 

 bones, bowstrings and thread of his tendons, and glue is manufactured froiL 



