358 On the Rein-Deer of the Laplanders. 



Meal is not used in summer ; but in winter, the Laplander 

 exchanges his rein-deer flesh for meal in the markets and 

 coast districts ; and he then eats the flesh, or the preserved 

 milk, cooked with meal, or a kind of soup made of rein-deer 

 blood and meal. His food in winter is very nourishing, and 

 it is thus that he is able to endure the hardships and severe 

 weather with which he has to contend. 



Many travellers, and among them Brooke,* have asserted, 

 that the Laplanders proceed yearly with their rein-deer to the 

 coasts of Norway, and that it is a matter of necessity that the 

 animals should drink sea-water every year ; but this is not the 

 case. The wandering of the Laplanders is by no means re- 

 gular, and many rein-deer — nay, the greater number — have 

 never tasted sea-water. It entirely depends on the locality, 

 whether the Laplander goes to the sea-coast or not, and whe- 

 ther this takes place in summer or winter. In the districts 

 Namdalen and Senjen, whose coasts are suiTounded by islands 

 having high cliffs, the Laplander drives his rein-deer to the 

 coasts, and thence takes them to the islands in order to pro- 

 cure food for them. This transport presents an interesting 

 spectacle. The Laplander attaches one or several rein-deer 

 to his little boat by means of a rope, which is secured round 

 the horns. He then rows across the sound, which is often 

 more than an English mile broad ; and the rest of the animals 

 having been driven into the sea, swim after their leaders to 

 the opposite coast. In other localities, the Laplander goes to 

 the coast in the winter season, when the snow is too deep on 

 the mountains, and he again quits it in April or May. In a 

 valley, an English mile or two from the town of Tromsoe, a 

 Laplander remains till the beginning of August, with 700 

 rein-deer. It is evident, from what has now been said, that 

 no particular natural impulse takes the rein-deer at fixed 

 seasons to the sea ; on the other hand, it is an undoubted 

 fact, that the rein-deer will not remain longer than about the 

 end of August in the coast regions and in the Norwegian pas- 

 tures — nay, that if the Laplander does not hasten, before the 

 20th August, towards the mountains, his herd will desert him, 

 and proceed on their journey to the plains of Lapland. 



* For a portion of Brooke's Account of the Eeiu»Deer, see Jameson's 

 Journal, vol. iii-; p. 30. 



