HOW THE REINDEER LIVE 371 



fresher pasture. In August and September, when the 

 sun has grown too strong for thern, they seek the shade 

 of the woods again. 



In their wild state reindeer are great travellers, and as 

 they are very strong, and excellent swimmers, they go im- 

 mense distances, especially the reindeer of North America, 

 who will cross the ice to Greenland in the early part of 

 the year, and stay there till the end of October, when 

 they come back to their old quarters. They are most 

 sociable creatures, and are never happy unless they have 

 three or four hundred companions, while herds of a 

 thousand have sometimes been counted. The females 

 and calves always are placed in front, and the big bucks 

 bring up the rear, to see that nobody falls out of the 

 ranks from weakness. 



We are accustomed to think of a reindeer as having 

 thick brownish hair, but this is only partly true of him . 

 Like many animals that live in the north, the colour of 

 the hair is different in winter from what it is in summer. 

 Twice a year the reindeer changes his coat, and the 

 immense thick covering which has been so comfortable 

 all through the fierce cold, begins to fall in early spring 

 and a short hair to take its place, so that by the time 

 summer comes, he is nice and cool, and looks quite 

 another creature from what he did in the winter. As the 

 days shorten and grow frosty, the coat becomes longer and 

 closer, and by the time the first snow falls the deer is 

 quite prepared to meet it. 



Though reindeer prefer mountain-sides when they 

 can get them, their broad and wide-cleft hoofs are well 

 adapted for the lowlands of the north of Europe and of 

 America, which are a morass in summer and a snow-field 

 in winter. Here are to be seen whole herds of them, 

 either walking with a regular rapid step, or else going 

 at a quick trot ; but in either case always making a 

 peculiar crackling noise with their feet. They have an 

 extraordinarily acute sense of smell, and will detect ;i 



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