72 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 



elated with man in Caithness is of especial interest, 

 as tending to confirm the truth of the tradition that 

 the jarls of Orkney in the twelfth century were in 

 the habit of crossing the Pentland Firth for the 

 purpose of hunting the Red-deer and the Reindeer 

 in the wilds of Caithness. 



Torfseus, in his history of Orkney (" Orcades, sen 

 Rerum Orcadensium Historia," Lib. I. cap. xxxvi.), 

 written at the close of the seventeenth century, 

 thus translates a passage from the " Orkneyinga 

 Saga :" " Consueverant Comites in Catenesiam^ndeque 

 ad montana ad venatum caprearum rangiferorum.que 

 quotannis profiscisi." Dr. Fleming, in his "History 

 of British Animals," published in Edinburgh in 

 1828, quoting this passage, remarks that "it would 

 lead to the belief that Reindeer once dwelt in 

 the mountains of Caithness, were it not extremely 

 probable that Red-deer were intended." Dr- 

 Hibbert also, who has written an elaborate critique 

 upon the subject,* was at first inclined to think 

 that Torfaeus had made a mistake here, and that 

 he should have stated " the Roe-deer and the 

 Red-deer," instead of "the Roe and the Reindeer." 

 But a learned Icelander, Jonas Jonseus, who in 

 1780 published an abstract and Latin translation 

 of the Saga,-\ has explained the manuscript sources 



* ' On the Question of the Existence of the Eeindeer during the 

 Twelfth Century in Caithness,' in Brewster's Edinb. Journ. of Science, 

 New Series, vol. v. p. 50. 



f " Orkneyinga Saga sive Historia Orcadensium : Saga hins Helga 

 Magnusa Eyia Jarls, sive Yita Sancti Magni Insulai-um Comitis 

 Islandice et Latine," edidit J. Jonaeus, 4to, Hafniae, 1780, p. 384. 



