FOOD. 2 '2 3 



pounds ; whereas the tame rein-deer, according to Swedish 

 naturalists, never attain to more than two hundred pounds. 

 Several reasons are assigned for this deterioration in the 

 race ; but the principal one would seem to be, that as the 

 larger portion of the milk of the dam is reserved by the 

 Lapps for their own subsistence, the fawns, when at a 

 tender age, are stinted of their proper nourishment. 



The food of the tame rein-deer, though in great degree 

 the same as that of the wild rein- deer, is to a certain extent, 

 so to speak, artificial ; for the tame herds must necessarily 

 pasture where the owner wills, which may not always be 

 where their own inclinations would lead them. In the 

 summer time, as said, the wild rein-deer resort to the sub- 

 alpine regions, and in the winter to the fjalls. But the Lapps, 

 on the contrary, pasture their herds at the former season on 

 the higher mountain^ ranges, and during the latter on the 

 lower grounds.* 



Several reasons are assigned for the Lapps thus pasturing 

 their herds on the fjalls during the summer. The one is, 

 that they themselves and the deer may, in degree at least, be 

 rid of the mosquitoes, that curse to man and beast in high 

 latitudes. Another, that the lichens, &c., in the valleys, may be 

 reserved for the subsistence of the animals during the winter. 

 Necessity, not choice, compels the Lapp to shift his ground 

 perpetually. Like all the deer tribe, the rein-deer requires 

 constant change. The grass and variety of alpine plants, 

 which during summer form, more than lichens, his food, 



* It is believed that this reversal of the state of things is, on the part of the 

 wild rein-deer, for the purpose of getting out of the way of the Lapps, who 

 during winter at least, are less able to pursue them on the fjalls than in the 

 forest, where the snow lies much the deepest. 



