REINDEER.—Tarandus Rangifer. 
us of the futility of all attempts to save it alive. We threw to it the skin of a deer, 
which it tore to pieces ina moment. This individual was a yearling, and about six feet 
high.” 
By careful attention, however, and good training, the Elk can be used as a beast of 
carriage or burden, and from its great size and power is extremely vaiuable in that 
capacity. 
Two varieties of the REINDEER inhabit the earth ; the one, called the Reindeer, being 
placed upon the northern portions of Europe and Asia, and the other, termed the Caribou, 
being restricted to North America. We will first describe the European variety. 
This animal is very variable in dimensions, specimens of very different height being 
in the British Museum. The colour is also variable, according to the season of year. In 
winter the fur is long, and of a greyish-brown tint, with the exception of the neck, hinder 
quarters, abdomen, and end of nose, which are white. In the summer, the grey-brown 
hair darkens into a sooty brown, and the white portions become grey. 
In its wild state the Reindeer is a migratory animal, making annual journeys from the 
woods to the hills, and back again, according to the season. Their chief object in leaving 
the forests in the summer months appears to be their hope of escaping the continual 
attacks of mosquitoes and other insect pests that are found in such profusion about forest 
land. The principal plague of the Reindeer is one of the gad-flies, peculiar to the species, 
which deposits its eggs in the animal’s hide, and subjects it to great pain and continual 
harassment. Even in the domesticated state the Reindeer is obliged to continue its 
migrations, so that the owners of the tame herds are perforce obliged to become partakers 
in the annual pilgrimages, and to accompany their charge to the appropriate localities. 
