IStctfnnarj) of ^mmatrtf feature. 571 



The chief food of the Rein-deer is a species 

 of lichen, or moss, which covers large tracts 

 of the northern regions, and on which these 

 animals delight to browse. " Lapland," we 

 are told, "is divided into two tracts, called 

 the alpine and the woodland country. Those 

 immense mountains, called in Sweden Tjel- 

 len, divide that country from Norway, ex- 

 tending towards the White Sea as far as 

 Russia, and are frequently more than twelve 

 miles in breadth. The other, called the 

 I woodland division, lies to the east of this, 

 ! and differs from the neighbouring provinces 

 | of Norway by its soil, which is exceedingly 

 ' stony and barren, being covered with one 

 continued tract of wood, of old pine-trees. 

 | This tract has a very singular appearance. 

 I The trees above are covered over with great 

 quantities of a black hanging lichen, grow- 

 ing in filaments resembling locks of hair, 

 while the ground beneath appears like snow, 

 being totally covered with white lichens. 

 Between this wood and the Alps lies a region 

 called the Woodland, or Desert Lapmark, 

 of thirty or forty miles in breadth, of the 

 most savage and horrid appearance, consist- 

 ting of scattered and uncultivated woods, 

 and continued plains of dry barren sand, 

 mixed with vast lakes and mountains. 

 When the mosses on part of this desert tract 

 have been burnt, either by lightning or 

 any accidental fire, the barren soil imme- 

 diately produces the white lichen which 

 covers the lower parts of the Alps. The 

 Rein-deer in summer seek their highest 

 parts, and there dwell amidst their storms 

 and snows, not to fly the heat of the lower 

 regions, but to avoid the gnat and gad-fly. 

 In winter these intensely cold mountains, 

 whose tops reach high into the atmosphere, 

 can no longer support them, and they are 

 obliged to return to the desert and subsist 

 upon the lichens." 



" To the natives of North America," to 

 use the words of a contemporary writer, " the 

 Reindeer is only known as a beast of chace, 

 but it is a most important one : there is hardly 

 a part of the animal which is not made avail- 

 able to some useful purpose. Clothing made 

 of the skin is, according to Dr. Richardson, 

 so impervious to the cold, that, with the ad- 

 dition of a blanket of the same material, 

 any one so clothed may bivouack on the 

 snow with safety in the most intense cold 

 of an arctic winter's night. The venison, 

 when in high condition, has several inches 

 of fat on the haunches, and is said to equal 

 that of the fallow-deer in our best English 

 parks ; the tongue and some of the tripe are 

 reckoned most delicious morsels. Pem- 

 mican is formed by pouring one-third part 

 of melted fat over the pounded meat, and 

 incorporating them well together. The Es- 

 quimaux and Greenlanders consider the 

 stomach or paunch with its contents a great 

 delicacy ; and Captain James Ross says that 

 those contents form the only vegetable food 

 which the natives of Boothia ever taste. 

 For further particulars, and there are many 

 and interesting, we must refer to Dr. Ri- 

 chardson's Fauna Boreali-Americana, and 

 the works of our gallant northern voyagers 

 generally/' 



REMORA, or SUCKING-FISH. (Echi- 

 ncig.) This fish, which in form bears some re- 

 semblance to the herring, and is from fifteen 

 to eighteen inches in length, is the echeneisof 

 the Greeks, and has been celebrated from re- 

 mote antiquity for its power of adhesion to 

 any other animal or inanimate substance: in 

 short, the most incredible stories are related 



by Pliny and other ancient naturalists with 

 all possible gravity and good faith ; among 

 others, that Antony's ship, at the battle of 

 Actium, was kept motionless by the exer- 

 tions of the Remora, notwithstanding the 

 efforts of several hundred sailors ; and that 

 the vessel of Caligula was detained between 

 Astura and Actium by another of these fish 

 found sticking to the helm, and whose 

 solitary efforts could not be countervailed by 

 a crew of four hundred able seamen, till 

 several of the latter, on examining into the 

 cause of the detention, perceived the im- 

 pediment, and detached the Remora from 

 its hold. The real fact is, that the fins of 

 this fish are particularly weak, on which 

 account it attaches itself to various bodies, 

 and is found not only fastened to ships, but 

 to whales, sharks, and other fishes ; and 

 with such extreme tenacity is this hold 

 maintained, that, unless the effort of separa- 

 tion be applied in a particular direction, it 

 is impossible to effect the disunion without 

 the destruction of the fish itself. In stormy 

 and boisterous weather, the Remora, like 

 the lumpfish and some others, will also often 

 adhere to rocks. 



The Remora is principally an inhabitant 

 of the Mediterranean and Atlantic seas. Its 

 general colour is an uniform brown ; the 

 skin smooth and destitute of scales, but 

 marked with numerous impressed points or 

 pores : the mouth is large, and furnished 

 with very numerous small teeth ; and the 

 lower jaw is rather longer than the upper : 

 the eyes are small, with yellow irides : the 

 lateral line commences above the pectoral 

 fins, and from thence, pretty suddenly de- 

 scending, runs straight in the tail, which is of 

 a slightly forked, or rather lunated form. 

 Another species, the INDIAN REMORA (Eche- 

 neis neucrates), which is of a more slender 

 or lengthened shape, is said to be employed 

 by the natives of the coast of Mozambique in 

 their pursuit 'tf turtle'-, with great success. 

 A ring is fasUned round the tail of the fish 

 in such a manner as to prevent its escape, 

 and a long cord fastened to the ring. When 

 the boat has arrived as near as it well can to 

 a turtle that is sleeping on the surface of the 

 water, as is the custom of these animals, the 

 boatmen throw the Remora into the sea, 

 and giving it the proper length of cord, It 

 soon attaches itself to the breast of the sleep- 

 ing turtle, and both are then drawn into the 

 boat with ease. The apparatus by which 

 this adhesion is accomplished by the Remora 



