RKiNnr.Ens. 151 



chiefly, if not entirely, found in mid Europe, is probably due rather to the more favourable location 

 for preserving and finding them, than to the extinct species not having also lived more to the north, 

 as it does now. 



It now inhabits the whole of the boreal regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Its southern 

 limit is very nearly the isothermal line of 32° Fahr. more frequently extending a few degrees 

 to the south of it, than to the north. Its most southerly limit now is 50° N.L. viz. the southern 

 point of Kamtschatka, and its most northern is probably Spitzbergen. 



It is also a native of Greenland, and used to be, and probably still is, plentiful there, — 

 both on the east and west coast. Otho Fabricius especially mentions it as an inhabitant of 

 the island of Disco, far up on the west coast. It is also found in Iceland, but not as an 

 aboriginal inhabitant. Sir G. Mackenzie informs us that in the year 1773 thirteen Reindeer were 

 exported from Norway for Iceland, only three of which reached the island. These were turned loose 

 into the mountains of Guldbringe Syssel, where they multiplied so greatly in the course of forty 

 years, that in various districts it was not imcommon to meet with herds consisting of from forty 

 to one hunfb-ed.* A happy future was anticif)ated for these animals. It was thought that 

 although in Lapland they were losers by their connexion with man, Iceland should make up for all. 

 There is in the interior a tract which Sir G. Mackenzie computed at not less than forty thousand 

 square miles, without a single human habitation, and almost entirely unknown to the natives them- 

 selves. There are no wolves ; the Icelanders would keep out the bears ; and the Reindeer, being 

 almost immolested, by man, would have no enemy whatever, unless they had brought with them their 

 own tormenting gad-fly. f The anticipation has not been realized. Lord Dufferin speaks of them as 

 any thing but common. J And Mr. Baring-Goidd says that they are almost confined to the north- 

 eastern part of the island, where they are in some numbers.^ 



Iceland is a fair illustration of what woidd be the result if immigration were alone relied on 

 for the peopling of islands. The only indication of its having possessed an aboriginal mammalian 

 Faima, is the Arctic Fox and a so-called economic Mouse, which I anticipate will turn out to be 

 the Greenland Lemming. These are the onl}' mammals which are not known to have been introduced ; 

 but as scarcely a year passes in which several Polar Bears do not arrive on the north coast 

 brought by icebergs or floes, there is no difficulty in supposing that a sufficiency of Foxes to 

 stock the island might have come with them. They could scarcely have come alone, because, 

 not being able to take their prey by swimming, they must have starved on the way. But if they 

 made the voyage on a large hununocky floe along with Polar Bears, they might have beeen able to 

 keep out of their grasp, and yet feed on any remains of fish or seals which the Bears may have 

 caught and left on the passage. The Lemming may have come in the same way. It thus appears 

 that three circumpolar animals are the only species which, unaided by man, have ever found 

 their way to this island ; and but for the exceptional advantages of transit by icebergs (which, of 

 course, are not enjoyed in warmer regions), the island must probably have remained as desert and 

 mipoopled by mammals as it had ever been. 



It is a disputed point whether moi'e than one species of Reindeer exists. But there are several 



* Mackenzie's " Travels in Iceland, in 181011," p. :;: Dufferin, Lord, "Letters from. High Latitudes," 



342. 185n. 



t Ltell's " Principles of Geology," fir.st edition, 1832, § S. Baring-Godld, " Icel.ind," 1863. 



ii. 154. 



