THE WILD REINDEER OF NORWAY. 89 
in fact, a collateral branch of the mountain ranges of 
Norway. By this same route, too, the Lapps un- 
questionably made their first appearance into Norway. 
Indeed, the very existence of this extraordinary people 
seems to have been mysteriously connected with that of 
the reindeer; and it is more than probable that the 
reindeer served as their pilots from the remote parts of 
Asia to the mountain ranges of Norway, while at a 
later period, again, the paths made by deer and Lapps 
from the fjords to the fjelds served as tracks for the 
Gothic race on their wandering up from the coast into 
the interior. 
This seems to be the only reasonable solution of the 
fact that, in the alluvial deposits of Scania, fossil 
remains of reindeer are found bearing incontestable 
signs of being the remains of animals exactly similar to 
those now existing on the fields of Lapland and 
Norway, whilst in the intermediate parts not a single 
fossil remain has ever been discovered. 
The wild reindeer may be found on the high fjelds of 
Norway as far south as lat. 60°, wherever the altitude 
is above the limit of the willow and the birch, viz., 
about 3,400 feet. They are more numerous in the west 
and south-west of the mountain plateaux than in the 
north-east, probably owing to the absence of Lapps in 
those parts, who hunt them whenever and wherever 
they can. Neither is the wolf, the Lapp’s constant 
