20 THE WILD REINDEER OF NORWAY. 



great pain to the deer, and the herds, when in a 

 district infested by the flies, frequently become 

 almost frantic with terror. 



In former times great numbers of wild reindeer 

 used to be captured in Norway by means of pitfalls, 

 dug on the fjelds. These contrivances, called " Kein- 

 graven," were commonly constructed on the moun- 

 tain slopes, and near the favourite drinking places 

 of the deer. 



I have see,n many remains of them, but as the 

 present game laws of Norway forbid their use, they 

 have been filled up. In form they were oblong, 

 from six to eight feet in length, and about two and 

 a half in breadth, and five in depth, the sides being 

 built with flat stones. They were covered with 

 small sticks and brushwood, over which a thick 

 layer of reindeer moss was laid, and branches of 

 the dwarf willows were strewed about to entice the 

 deer to the spot. Of course, when the poor animal 

 trod on the concealed spot, it was instantly engulfed, 

 and its struggles to escape were rendered useless 

 by the depth and narrowness of the snare. An in- 

 genious and somewhat similar method of capturing 

 the American "cariboo" is practised by the Es- 

 quimaux inhabiting the country to the southward 

 of Chesterfield's Inlet. The sides of this trap, 

 according to Dr. Eichardson, are built of slabs of 

 snow, cut as if for a snow house. An inclined 



