470 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



Antlers approximating those of the Barren Ground Caribou, but less 

 elongated, and with a distinct back-tine in the male. Height of male 

 at shoulder, about 1,150 mm. . (Lydekker, 18986, p. 38; Miller, 1912, 

 p. 981; Flerov, 1933, p. 331.) 



Norway. The original range extended over the entire mountain 

 system of Scandinavia, almost from the Skagerrack to the North 

 Cape (Jacobi, 1931, p. 154). 



"In Norway, wild reindeer inhabit the high fjelds .... At the 

 present day the numbers of the wild Norwegian reindeer are 

 greatly reduced. But it appears from Mr. J. Lloyd's Scandinavian 

 Adventures that in the early part of the century these animals were 

 as abundant as blesbok in Africa. In that work it is stated that 

 one day in June 1826 the fjeld, for a breadth of seven miles, was 

 covered with reindeer as thickly as an English field by sheep when 

 feeding; the herd extending so far that the eye could not embrace 

 the whole at once." (Lydekker, 1898, p. 40.) 



"Unfortunately the introduction, a few years ago, of the Krag- 

 Jorgansen rifle among the peasantry has meant the doom of the wild 

 Reindeer, and now only a few are left in the above-mentioned dis- 

 trict [between the Laerdal and the Hallingdal], Gudbrandsdal, the 

 Dovrefjeld, on the mountains above the Hardanger Fjord, and in 

 Telemarken. A close time has been decreed by the Government 

 until the year 1907, but this is, like all Norwegian game laws, only 

 a dead letter and a thing to be scoffed at." (Millais, 1906, vol. 3, 

 p. 79.) 



In southern Norway the animals "still exist, although not so 

 numerously as formerly, and also partly mixed with runaway tame 

 Reindeer which have been introduced from the north" (Lonnberg, 

 1909, p. 3) . 



Miller (1912, p. 981) gives the range as follows: "Formerly the 

 entire alpine region of the Scandinavian Peninsula; now confined 

 in the wild state to two widely separated districts in Norway; west 

 Finmarken in the north, and the main high mountain region in 

 the south." 



Hj. Broch writes (in Hit., December, 1936) that in earlier times 

 the Reindeer was the chief game of all Norwegian mountains and 

 adjacent mountain forests, but by 1800 Wolves and excessive hunt- 

 ing had decimated the stock. During the last century the numbers 

 went down rapidly and the range diminished. Total protection 

 from 1902 to 1906 resulted in a great increase, but subsequent 

 decimation has been so great that there is danger of the extinction 

 of wild Reindeer in Norway. At present only some small herds 

 are left in the high mountains of southern Norway, especially in 

 the southern part of the Hardangervidda. The Norwegian mountain 



