NATURAL HISTORY. xvii 



11.— CERVUS TARANDUS (Reindeer). 



Cervus Tarandus. — Cuv: Rtg. Anim. — vol. i., p. 261. 

 Rich : Faun. Bor. Amer.—]). 238. 

 Rich : App. Parry's 2d Foy.— p. 326. 



Although this animal was seen in great numbers on the Isthmus of Boothia, only 

 one individual was killed in the course of our late voyage. It was a fine buck, of 

 larger size than ordinary, and weighed 250 lb. ; the average of those killed at Spitz- 

 bergen and Melville Island did not exceed half that weight. 



The does arrived about the middle of April, the bucks nearly a month later ; and 

 herds of several hundreds were seen about the Isthmus towards the end of May. 

 Numbers of the fawns, which at that period are in a very weak state, are killed by 

 the natives, who hunt them with their dogs; and the does themselves often fall 

 victims to their attachment to their offspring. 



The natives of Boothia depend chiefly on the skins of these animals for their beds 

 and clothing ; their bows and spears are principally made from their horns, which being 

 softened by steeping in water are easily cut into shape, even with their rude knives ; 

 and the sinews of the Reindeer make the best thread. The paunch, termed by them 

 ner-rook-kah, is esteemed a great delicacy; and its contents is the only vegetable food 

 which the natives ever taste. 



It feeds on the usneae, alectoriae, cetrariae, and other lichens in the early part of 

 spring ; but as the summer advances, the young and tender grass fattens it so quickly, 

 that in August they have been killed with several inches thick of fat on their haunches. 

 In this state the meat is equal to the finest English venison ; but is most tasteless and 

 insipid when in poor condition. 



Dr. Richardson loc. cit. has given a most detailed and interesting account of the 

 several uses to which every part of this animal is put, and the various ways by which 

 it is captured or killed in different parts of the American continent. 



The natives of Boothia seldom hunt it in the spring, and then the bow and arrow is 

 their only mode of killing it ; but in the autumn, as the animal returns from the north 

 in fine condition, they are destroyed in great numbers by parties of the natives driving 

 them into the water, whilst others in canoes kill them with spears at their leisure. 



Although they migrate, towards the middle of September, to milder chmes, yet 

 stragglers are occasionally seen in the winter. 



*c 



