502 TRAVELS OF A NATURALIST 



begins. Often in lassoing, a strong and expert Samoyede 

 does it so adroitly that he encircles both the horns and 

 fore-legs at the same time, then by a violent, powerful 

 backward jerk, throws the animal full upon its chest and 

 kills it instantly. This we should like to see done, and 

 may have an opportunity when we go down to Habarika.* 

 Afterwards we went out with the Captain, and ex- 

 amined some reindeer in the town at the house of a rich 

 Russian, who was illicitly selhng brandy to the Samo- 

 yedes. To our astonishment and disgust, the Captain 

 suddenly seized hold of a reindeer, and after squeezing 

 and feeling amongst the beast's hair, produced a disgust- 

 ing-looking maggot nearly an inch long, which burrows 

 under the skin and feeds upon the poor brute's flesh. 

 The Captain assured us that these loathsome maggots 

 grow, under the skin, to the size of about three inches, 

 showing us the length on his hand. Sometimes the deer 

 succumb to their attacks and die, 

 the flesh being eaten away and their 

 systems becoming affected. The 

 presence of the abomination is often 

 however local, and whilst every 

 animal in one herd — of say two hundred is— affected, 

 those in another are perfectly free of it. Of the above- 

 mentioned maggots we obtained specimens, and put them 

 in spirits. 



The disease of which the reindeer die in hundreds, 

 appears to me, from the description, closely to resemble 

 what, in sheep in Scotland, is called ' sturdy.' Suddenly 

 the animals totter and fall, or first run round in a circle, 

 sometimes getting on their backs with legs in the air. 

 ' Sturdy ' in sheep is, I believe, a determination of water 

 to the head. We were assured that one person who 

 owned 7,000 reindeer lost all but a thousand. 



'^- We did go down (see infra). 



