204 THEIR NUMBERS. 



excursion) the mountains in question, I saw several of these 

 animals, and in the snow-drifts innumerable of their tracks. 

 My guide assured me, indeed, that only a few days pre- 

 viously, he himself had fallen in with a herd consisting of 

 two hundred at the least. But this number, however great, 

 was nothing to what every one in those parts said are at 

 times to be seen congregated. 



" On the high fjalls in the vicinity of Roldahl and 

 Woxlie," Nilsson tells us, " the rein-deer collect at times in 

 astonishing numbers. One day in the beginning of June, 

 1826 (a couple of months before my visit to this district), 

 the fjall, for the breadth of half a Norwegian mile,* was 

 as thickly covered with rein-deer as the ground is where 

 sheep feed In a flock. A number of hinds had recently 

 calved, and the fawns followed their dams. The herd 

 extended such a distance, that the eye could not embrace 

 the whole at once. Subsequently the deer separated into 

 three divisions. The peasants thereabouts, who are for the 

 most part Chasseurs, followed the herd, and succeeded on 

 the following day in approaching sufficiently near to kill 

 several of the deer, both old and young. This reminds one 

 as well of the interminable herds of antelopes in the deserts of 

 Africa, as of the equally large herds of bisons in the prairies 

 of America." . . . . " That this account is literally true," 

 the Professor adds, "is the more certain, because it was given 

 me in different places and by different persons, who all agreed 

 in their relations. The phenomenon excited a good deal of 

 interest no person having previously seen so large a number 

 of rein-deer collected on one and the same place." 



* The Norwegian mile is a trifle more than seven English miles; the 

 Swedish mile, on the other hand, is somewhat less then seven English miles. 



