91 FOOTNOTES FROM 



accursed land, are fertile pastures to the Laplander, who, 

 in possession of a tract of such country, deems himself a 

 prosperous man. There vast herds of reindeer roam at 

 will, enjoying themselves where the horse, the camel, 

 and the elephant would perish. The reindeer is the life, 

 hope, and wealth of the inhabitants of those dreary and 

 inclement regions. It draws their burdens with all the 

 patience of the ass, yields its milk with all the docility 

 of the cow, and transports its owner from place to place 

 over the snowy and frozen plains, with all the fleetness 

 of an Arabian horse. Its flesh serves for food ; its 

 tendons for strings to their bows, and its thick-furred 

 skin for comfortable garments and bed-clothes to protect 

 them from the rigours of an Arctic climate. And this 

 useful animal is exclusively dependent upon an humble 

 lichen for its support. What a deep interest therefore 

 invests this otherwise insignificant plant ! That vast 

 numbers of families, living in pastoral simplicity in the 

 cheerless and inhospitable Polar regions, should depend 

 for their subsistence, upon the uncultured and abundant 

 supply of a plant so low in the scale of organization as 

 this, is surely a striking proof of the great importance of 

 even the smallest and meanest objects in nature. 



When the ground is covered with hard and frozen 

 snow, so that the reindeer cannot obtain its usual food, 

 it finds a substitute in a very curious lichen called rock- 

 hair (Alectoria jubata, Fig. 11), which covers with its 

 beard-like tufts the trunks of almost every tree. In 

 more severe winters, the Laplanders cut down whole 

 forests of the largest trees, that their herds may be en- 

 abled to browse at liberty upon the tufts which cover 



