:n. i-:. 



II'.K. 



Hradi of two old buck Caribou of the Barren Groundi. From Sir John 

 nichardnon'i cum taken from Captain Back's drawing!. 

 Rein-Deer across nearly the whole continent appears to be about the 

 parallel of Quebec ; but the animal is most numerous between (i:i ' 

 and 66* N. lat. Pawing westward it U Raid to be unknown in the island* 

 interposed between America and Asia, but is again abundant in 

 Kamtchatka, throughout nearly the whole of Siberia, in Northern 

 Russia, Sweden, and Norway, and more especially in Finmark and 

 l.aplan<l. In th-se Utter countries the numbers of the few wil.l herds 

 thai still exist are suffering a constant diminution, every art being 

 put in practice by the hardy natives to reclaim and domesticate an 

 animal which constitutes their sole property, the source of all their 

 comfort*, and the very means of their existence; without which 

 their land would actually be, as at a first glance it seems, a bleak 

 and uninhabitable desert. According to M. Cuviur, the Baltic forms 

 in Kiirope iU southern limit ; in Asia however it extends along the 

 Ural chain to the *>t of the Caucasus ; and we have the authority 

 of a piwmge in Cirsar's 'Commentaries,' which cnn scarcely apply to 

 any other animal, for its havmg existed in his day in the Hcrcynian 

 Forest. The boundaries of this immense tract of woodland are 

 certainly not very well defined , but thin location would imply, at 

 U event*, a more southern European habitat than any that is at 

 present known. Again, crossing the ocean, we find the Rein-Deer 

 at Spitsbergen, in Greenland, and in Newfoundland ; but it hax 

 been said by Pennant, and this has been repeated l>y Sir John 

 Richardson, in his valuable roology of the Fur Countries of North 

 America, not to be known in Iceland. This statement, which was 

 scarcely true at the time when Pennant wrote, it not l>y any means 

 correct as refers to the present day. A'>ut eighty yean since, as 

 we learn from Van Troil s ' Letters on Iceland,' thirteen of the-e 

 animals were imported from Norway, tea of which dying on the 

 passage, only thre: were landed. These were turn 1 out into the 

 mountains, and have since multiplied to mch an extent in the interior 

 and unfrequented parts of the country that their pro^-ny was rrti- 

 mute I liy I'-nint Trampe, the governor, ill 1809, the period of ]) r . 

 Hooker's visit, nt no less than 6000 head. Herd' of forty, sixty, or 

 even a hundred individuals, are sii.l, !'!. )>y Dr. Hooker and )>y Sir 



Qeorge Mackenzie, who visited the island in the following summer, 

 to be not uncommon in the mountains. They are however of little 

 use to the inhabitants, who have made no attempts to domesticate 

 them, and are too poor to purchase powder and ball for their destruc- 

 tion. It does not appear indeed that they are much sought after, 

 the cow and the sheep thriving extremely well upon the island, and 

 supplying the place of the deer in almost every respect We may 

 add, that according to Mr. (Sir Arthur) Brooke, an importation 

 of six bucks and twenty-four does took place in 1777, about seven 

 years after the period of the first introduction of the animal into 

 Iceland." (' Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society,' 

 voLL) 



The size of the Rein-Deer, widely spread as it is, varies very much 

 according to the accidents of climate; and if authors are to bo cre- 

 dited their weight ranges from 60 to 400 Ibs. The latter in probably 

 an exaggeration, but it is evident that the weight increases in propor- 

 tion to the proximity of the animal to the role. According to Sir 

 John Richardson, the bucks of the variety called the Barrcn-ti round 

 Caribou weigh, exclusive of the offal, when in good condition, from 

 90 to 130 Ibs., whilst he describes the Woodland Caribou as much 

 larger ; and Captain (Sir John) Franklin makes the weight of the 

 latter from 200 to 240 Ibs. The buck killed on the isthmus of 

 Boothia was, as we have seen, 250 Ibs. ; while the average of three 

 killed at Spitsbergen and on Melville Island did not exceed half that 

 weight. The Rein-Deer of Norway and Sweden are diminutive lien 

 compared with those of Finmark and Lapland, which in their turn 

 yield to those of Spitsbergen ; and these again fall short of tlie more 

 Polar races. The sledge-deer of the Laplanders are small when com- 

 pared with those reared by the Tungusians of the north of Asia, who 

 ride upon them. 



The food of the Rein-Deer varies with the seasons and the climate. 

 Lapland, says Hoff berg, in the memoir above quoted, is divided into 

 two tracks, called the alpine and woodland country. Those immense 

 mountains called in Sweden Fjellcn divide that country from Norway, 

 extending towards the White Sea as far as Russia, and are frequently 

 more than twelve miles in breadth. The other, called the woodland 

 division, lies to the east of this, and differs from the neighbouring 

 provinces of Norway by its soil, which is exceedingly stony and barren, 

 being covered with one continued tract of wood, of old pine-trees. 

 This tract has a very singular appearance. The trees above are 

 covered over with great quantities of a black hanging lichen, growing 

 in filaments resembling locks of hair, while the ground beneath 

 appears like snow, being totally covered with white lichens. Between 

 this wood and the Alps lies a region called the Woodland, or Desert 

 Lapmorc, of 30 or 40 miles in breadth, of the most savage and horrid 

 appearance, consisting of scattered uncultivated woods and continued 

 plains of dry barren sand mixed with vast lakes and mountains. 

 When the mosses on part of this desert tract have been burnt. 

 by lightning or any accidental fire, the barren soil immediately pro- 

 duces the white lichen which covers the lower parts of the Alps. The 

 Rein-Deer in summer seek their highest parts, and there dwell amidst 

 their storms and snows, not to fly the heat of the lower regions, but 

 to avoid the gnat and gad-fly. In winter these intensely cold moun- 

 tains, whose tops reach high into the atmosphere, con no longer 

 support them, and they are obliged to return to the desert, :md 

 subsist upon the lichens. Of these its principal food is the rein-deer 

 lichen. There are, says Hoffberg, two varieties of this ; the first is 

 called Lichen tylralru, which is extremely common in the barren 

 deserts of Lapland, and more particularly in its sandy and gravelly 

 fields, which it whitens over like snow ; its vast marshes, full of 

 tussocks of turf, and its dry rocks are quite grown over by it The 

 second variety of this plant, which is less frequent than the farmer, is 

 named the Alpine ; this grows to a greater height, with its branches 

 matted together : it has this name because when those mountain* are 

 cleared of their wood the whole surface of the earth is covered with 

 it; yet it is seldom to be found on their tops. When the woods 

 become too luxuriant i he Laplander sets fire to them, as experience 

 has taught him that when the v. -iv-taMes are thus destroyed, the 

 lieli.'ii takes re. 4 in the ban-en soil and multiplies with f.n 

 though it requires an interval of eight or ten years before it eomcs to 

 a proper height. The Laplander esteems himself opulent who has 

 extensive deserts producing this plant exuberantly. Wlm it whitens 

 over his Held* he N under no necessity of gathering in a crop of hay 

 against the approach of winter, as the liein-DeercaU no dri> 

 unless perhaps the Kiver Horsetail (AV/i/Mc/m/. y root 



for this lichen under the KIIOW like swine in a pasture ; their foreheads, 

 nose, and feet are guarded with a hard skin closely attached to those 

 parts that they may not lw hurt by the icy crust which covers the 

 surface of the snow. The very strong shoes which the Laplander 

 esteems so much are made of those purts of the hide. It sometimes 

 happens (but very rarely) that the winter sets in with great 

 which the frost immediately congeals ; the surface of the earth is 

 covered with a coat of ice l>efore the snow i tb lichen is 



entire!;. 1 and Iniried in it: thus tin' Rafat-Dsw if .-"inc-timi s 



starved, and a famine attacks the Laplanders. In .-m-h 

 they have no other resource than thai of felling old fir-trees ; 

 over with the hairy liverwort*. These all ml but a very mode 

 supply even for a small herd, but the greater part of a large ... 



