224 HIS ENEMIES. 



are soon exhausted ; and were the Lapps not to shift their 

 encampment, the deer would wander away and be lost to 

 them. 



The rein-deer has many enemies. The wolf is perhaps his 

 greatest less so, however, to the wild rein-deer, than to that 

 in a state of domestication ; for the beast finding that he can 

 seldom fairly run down the former, he less molests him. 

 Should the deer, however, stand on the defensive, the wolf 

 dares not approach him. It has happened during the rutting 

 season, indeed, that the Brunst-Ren, or rutting male, has killed 

 the beast on the spot. 



When attacked by the wolf, the wild and the tame rein- 

 J v 



deer conduct themselves altogether differently. The wild 

 rein-deer starts off at the top of his speed, and runs for the 

 most part twenty to thirty miles, without once pulling up 

 or looking behind him; whilst the tame rein-deer, on the 

 contrary, which has neither the endurance nor the speed of the 

 wild rein-deer, halts at times to view the pursuer. Hence the 

 wolf, as well as the Lapp, can distinguish the wild rein-deer, 

 by the Spar alone. As soon as the beast scents the herd 

 which he does from a very long distance he stealthily makes 

 his approaches towards it, and always under the wind, that the 

 animals may not be aware of his presence, and until close to 

 them, when he pounces on the nearest. In the first instance 

 he fixes his fangs in the hock ; but when the deer, in his endea- 

 vours to escape, becomes exhausted, the wolf lets go his hold 

 of the leg, and rushes at the throat, on which, for the most 

 part, the poor creature rears up and falls backwards to the 

 ground. If the beast be hungry, he immediately tears open 

 the chest, and thrusting his hideous jaws into the opening, 

 gorges himself with the blood of his victim. 



