30 THE NATURALIST IN NORWAY. 



younger ones. The horns are shed once a year, and 

 are covered with a dark ash-blue nap, of the consist- 

 ency of plush. Bach animal has two long upright 

 horns, with numerous branches, as well as a pair of 

 frontal horns which project over the forehead, and are 

 palmated, the right-hand one being longer than the 

 other. Nature appears to have bestowed the frontal 

 horns on the reindeer to assist it in scraping away the 

 snow from the lichens, which are its principal food in 

 winter. Speaking of the horns of this animal, Pont- 

 oppidan says : " When the new horns are beginning 

 to grow, then it is that they appear to be covered with 

 a kind of skin ; and until they come to the length of a 

 finger, they are so soft that they may be cut with a 

 knife like a sausage, and are eaten raw." The bishop 

 adds that he obtained his information from the hunters 

 themselves, who often, when out on the fjelds, and 

 suffering from hunger, found these budding horns of 

 the reindeer both meat and drink to them. The 

 beauty and size of the reindeer's horns depend very 

 much on the facility with which the animal obtains its 

 food. As a proof of this, I mention the following in- 

 teresting circumstance : Some Norwegian hunters on 

 the fjelds killed a small reindeer that was without 

 horns, and so emaciated that it was literally nothing 

 but a "bag of bones/' On looking for the cause of 

 this singular freak of nature, they found that the 

 animal had had part of its jaw shot away. The wound 

 had healed, but the poor creature was unable to obtain 

 proper nourishment ; it could hardly swallow, and, in 

 consequence, the horns had been unable to grow. 

 The horns are so intimately connected with the organs 

 of reproduction, that if they are cut before the rutting 



