THE WILD REINDEER OF NORWAY. 103 
above suppositions is certainly a far more reasonable 
conclusion to arrive at than to have to believe in 
the existence of the roe in Norway. 
As has been above remarked, the tame reindeer are 
considerably smaller than the wild. Moreover, the 
reindeer found in Spitzbergen are much smaller than 
the wild remdeer in Norway, though belonging to 
one and the same species. It is a well-known fact that 
a difference of 500 feet in altitude brings one to a tem- 
perature and vegetable growth corresponding to those 
existing under a latitude 200 miles further north. 
Now, according to this computation, thé reindeer which 
frequent the highest parts of the Jotun Fjeld (which is 
two, three, or perhaps four thousand feet above the 
plateaux in the east and south-eastern parts) should 
correspond in size with those found 850 to 1,700 miles 
further to the north, which brings one to about to 
Spitzbergen.* Indeed, in the valleys of the Jotun 
Fjeld, whose peaks rear their summit up through 
endless masses of ice and snow which never melts, 
a Polar climate and a vegetation similar to that in 
Spitzbergen is found to exist. 
But to come back to our subject. In the summer 
the food of the reindeer consists mainly of grass, leaves, 
buds of birch, &c., and moss. It seems especially to 
have a predilection for acid and bitter plants. The 
* And yet some large bucks have been killed in the Jotun Field. 
