94 ANIMAL SKETCHES. CHAP. 



kind are the reindeer. To the Laplanders they are 

 everything. 



Their reindeer form their riches. These their tents, 



Their robes, their beds, and all their homely wealth 



Supply, their wholesome fare, and cheerful cups. 



Obsequious at their call, the docile tribe 



Yield to the sledge their necks, and whirl them swift 



O'er hill and dale, heaped into one expanse 



Of marbled snow, as far as eye can sweep 



With a blue crust of ice unbounded glazed. THOMSON. 



The brows of both sexes in the reindeer bear antlers, 

 but those of the male are the finer and stronger. It is 

 said that they use the brow-tyne, which projects forward 

 from the antler, to remove the snow when they are 

 feeding, and it has been suggested that it is for this 

 purpose that the antlers of the female are developed. Or 

 it may be for protection against their fierce and cruel 

 enemy the wolf ; or possibly for some other reason of 

 which we are ignorant. Note, as you watch the reindeer, 

 the broad spread of the hoofs, the so-called false hoofs behind 

 the foot being unusually large. This increases the surface 

 for support upon so yielding a material as snow. And as 

 the reindeer walks or runs, the hoofs, which have spread 

 with the creature's weight, come together with a sharp 

 knacking sound. 



When they are hunted they are said to afford but tame 

 sport, from their boldness and fearlessness. Mr. Kennedy 

 tells of one of these deer, who upon receiving a bullet in 

 his ribs made a furious attack upon a companion of about 

 his own size, evidently under the impression that the 

 bullet wound was the result of a treacherous prick from 

 the horns of his friend. This reminds us of Mr. Romanes' 

 experiments on guinea-pigs. He fed them on nettles, a 

 kind of food to which they were unaccustomed, and set 



