286 COMMON r.inTTSH animai.s 



remarkable efccliing on slate from the bone caves of 

 Les Eyzles, Dordogne^ depicts with considerable 

 artistic skill and spirit, reindeer fighting. Just in 

 the same way the Lapps of to-day scratch pictures, 

 at their leisure, of the animal which plays so large 

 a part in their daily lives. Indeed, one might say 

 that existence would be almost impossible to the 

 Lapp without the reindeer. Alive, the animnl 

 gives him milk and drags his sledge, and its cast 

 antlers serve as material from which he makes spears 

 for fishing. When dead, the flesh provides food, 

 the skin clothing, tent covering and leather; the 

 tendons are made into sewing thread and the intes- 

 tines into ropes; the bones also serve for the con- 

 struction of many useful implements. 



The horns of the reindeer are palmated, the pal- 

 mation extending to both the brow and bez tines. 

 One of the brow tines is usuall}" much more developed 

 than its fellow and bent right over the foreliead. It 

 has been remarked that this tine serves admirably 

 for a snow plough. The reindeer is peculiar in that 

 both sexes develop horns. 



The hoofs are deepl}^ cleft and spreading, and the 

 posterior toes are well developed, almost touching 

 the ground. The large area covered by the foot 

 enables the animal to walk, without sinking, through 

 marshy ground. 



Reindeer ^' moss ^' (Cladonia rangiferina) , which 

 is not really a moss but a lichen, is tlie reindeer's 

 main food, which the animal finds beneath the snow 

 by means of its strong sense of smell. 



Several attempts have been made to introduce the 



