APPENDIX : NO. XI.IX: 13 
XLIX.! 
On THE IMPROVEMENT oF THE BREED oF THE REINDEER. 
(Ou Vorpeperne ar pen ramMur Reewspyr Race vep Ave.) 
[Forhandlinger ved de Skandinaviske Naturforskeres Syvende Méde. I Christiania 
den 12-18 Juli, 1856, pp. 185-189. Read “11” (13) July, 1856.] 
“Iv has several times happened to him in Lapland to have found 
Reindeer-oxen of rare excellence in regard to docility, speed, en- 
durance and many other qualities. But when he has tried to make 
enquiry so as to trace out more of the breed, it has most often been 
to no effect. For though it might be easy to follow up the animal’s 
origin, through its several owners, to the herd in which it was bred, 
yet the Lapps seem not to pay such attention to breeding as would 
enable them to ensure the reproduction of some of the rarer qualities 
which are seen in individual animals. There are several reasons for 
this. 
‘« First, there is ignorance of the possibility or use of the careful 
breeding of animals, the more so as the settlers themselves, with 
whom the Lapps chiefly come in contact, have no idea that selection 
is necessary for the breeding of other domestic animals. 
“Next, in a widely-spreading herd it would require greater care 
and foresight than could be expected of an ordinary Lapp to set 
marks to or remember a calf’s immediate parentage and to regulate 
the future breeding in accordance with such observations. 
“Thirdly, the Lapp would perhaps not let bis animals come to- 
gether with others which have different habits, both in regard to 
their periodical wanderings and their general mode of life; for as is 
well known there is a great difference in the habits and mode of life 
of Reindeer in different districts, a difference which is no doubt to 
a certain extent hereditary. 
“The Reindeer of the Mountain-Lapps will always in spring take 
to the mountains on their way to the sea-coast, and their owners, 
even if they wished it ever so much, could hardly restrain them 
from so doing, It is otherwise with the animals from the lower 
districts or woodlands, the Otto Porrot as the Finns call them. 
They could be kept from wandering away. 
“ Wild Reindeer, at least in many districts, seem to have a habit 
quite contrary to that of the Reindeer of the Mountain-Lapps, for 
the former keep in the highlands in winter and come down to the 
eastern forests when the cleg-fly | Zabanus] begins to be troublesome 
in summer, 
1 (This and the next (No. L.) are translated Abstracts of papers read by 
Mr. Wolley in the Zoological Section of the Seventh Meeting of Scandinavian 
Naturalists held at Christiania in July 1856, and retranslated from the Danish as 
printed in the ‘Transactions’ (4 or handlinger r) of the Meeting, published at Chris- 
tiania in 1857. A third paper read by him in the Physic sal Section, ‘ On the 
Recrystallization of Fallen Snow ” (see No. LVL), was not printed.—Ep. ] 
