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they are common, and those which frequent cold 

 countries have the antlers much flattened, as if to shovel 

 away the snow. They will sometimes weigh sixty Ibs. 

 These annuals are everywhere tenacious of life, and will 

 run a long way after being hit in a mortal part. 



Rein-deer, which form the wealth of the Laplanders, 

 serve them for food and clothing, draw them over path- 

 less fields of snow in safety, and are the only species 

 really domesticated. They eat a lichen, which they find 

 under the snow, during the winter, and live together in 

 large herds. They are the least handsome of the whole 

 tribe, are perfectly obedient, and one man sometimes 

 possesses as many as two thousand. Their joints crack 

 as they move ; and they are extremely fond of salt, even 

 taking it from the hands of strangers. They usually 

 run at the rate of ten English miles the hour, but have 

 gone nineteen, and draw a weight of 300 Ibs. ; but they 

 require good driving, and sometimes dash on, perfectly 

 regardless of the comfort of those in the sledge. Their 

 smell is very acute, and by it they are enabled to come 

 up with their party if they should have been left behind. 

 They suffer intensely from insects, especially from a large 

 species (oestrus tarandi), which deposits its eggs in the 

 hole made by its bite. In order to avoid these pests, the 

 rein-deer are driven during the summer months to the 

 mountains which overhang the coasts, where their foes 

 are much less numerous. They are so terrified at their 

 approach, that the sight of one will make them furious. 



Mr. Wentzel says that the Dog-rib Indians go in 

 pairs to kill rein- deer, the foremost carrying in one 

 hand the horns and part of the skin of a head of the 

 deer, and in the other a small bundle of twigs, against 

 which he, from time to time, rubs the horns as the deer 



