FAT REINDEER IN SPITZBERGEN. 281 



not only exist but flourish and grow exceedingly fat 

 upon these apparently completely barren shores, which 

 seem in many places entirely destitute of vegetation. 

 Upon the first arrival of the hunters, at the begin- 

 ning of the summer, the deer which have passed the 

 winter in Spitzbergen are found to be thin and in 

 poor condition, but though " much emaciated in June, 

 they grow very fat towards the end of the autumn, 

 after feeding on the mosses." * 



With regard to this, Professor Nordenskiold says, 

 that "two were shot early in October 1872, by the 

 Swedish Polar Expedition, with the carcase covered 

 with a thick layer of fat," while in the month of Sep- 

 tember these splendid deer "resemble fat cattle, and 

 have their flesh so surrounded with fat, that it is nearly 

 uneatable." f 



These are remarkable facts which it would seem 

 hard to account for, but the Professor goes on to 

 observe that the well known reindeer moss (Cladonia 

 Rangiferind], the natural food of these deer, grows "in 

 large quantities under the snow in Spitzbergen, and other 

 high latitudes: and when reindeer can get this they 

 require no other food. " That being so an immediate 

 explanation of this apparently strange phenomenon 

 is at once supplied, as it is exactly upon these 

 bare rocks and stones that this curious nutritive lichen 

 thrives best. It is called a moss, but it is really a 

 true lichen, ** and from its silver-grey stone colour it 

 is not easily seen afar off, as it much resembles the 

 colour of the surrounding rock. It is only on walking 



* Encycl. Brit., gth Edit., Vol. xxii., p. 409. 



f Arctic Voyages of the Vega, by Professor Nordenskiold, 1881, p. 199. 



Ibid. 



** See Encycl. Brit., gth Edition, Vol. xiv, p. 560. (Art. "Lichens"). 



