THE REINDEER. 203 



tormented to such a degree, that the Laplander, if he were 

 to remain in the forests during the months of June, July, and 

 August, would run the risk of losing the greater part of his 

 herd, either by actual sickness, or from the deer fleeing of their 

 own accord to mountainous situations to escape the gad-fly. 

 From these causes, the Laplander is driven from the forests to 

 the mountains that overhang the Norway and Lapland coasts, 

 the elevated situations of which, and the cool breezes from 

 the Ocean, are unfavourable to the existence of these trouble- 

 some insects, which, though found on the coast, are in far 

 less considerable numbers there, and do not quit the valleys ; 

 so that the deer, by ascending the highlands, can avoid 

 them." Reindeer are extremely timid when hunted, but if 

 the hunter can get sufficiently near to strike panic into a herd 

 they seem to lose all sense but that of fear, and are easily 

 captured in numbers. Writing of the North American Rein- 

 deer, Sir John Richardson says: "The Chippewayans, the 

 Copper Indians, the Dog-ribs, and Hare Indians of the Great 

 Bear Lake, would be totally unable to inhabit their barren 

 grounds, were it not for the immense herds of this deer that 

 exist there. Of the caribou horns they form their fish spears 

 and hooks ; the hide, dressed with the fur on, is excellent 

 for winter clothing, and supplies the place both of blanket 

 and feather bed to the inhabitants of these arctic wilds." 

 Captain Franklin gives the following description of the man- 

 ner in which the Dog-rib Indians kill the reindeer. "The 

 hunters go in pairs, the foremost man carrying in one hand 

 the horns and part of the skin of the head of a deer, and 

 in the other a small bundle of twigs, against which he, from 

 time to time, rubs the horns, imitating the gestures peculiar 

 to the animal. His comrade follows, treading exactly in his 

 footsteps, and holding the guns of both in a horizontal posi- 

 tion, so that the muzzles project under the arms of him who 

 carries the head. Both hunters have a fillet of white skin 

 round their foreheads, and the foremost has a strip of the 



