THE RED DEER. 235 



feeding more on grasses, &c., than the latter, they would he 

 much more likely to succeed in this country. I am douhtful 

 if the Skogs-Ren is procurable on the western coast of 

 Scandinavia ; but with previous arrangement, any numbers 

 may be had, and at a very moderate expense, at the several 

 Swedish ports situated towards the northern extremity of the 

 Gulf of Bothnia.* 



In conclusion. It seems strange that no attempts have 

 ever been made to domesticate the rein-deer in the territories 

 of the Canadian Company. As they exist there in consi- 

 derable numbers in a wild state, they could also exist in a 

 tame or herds could be exported from Scandinavia. How 

 easily many of the expeditions to the shores of the Polar Sea 

 might have been conducted, without risk of starvation, by 

 the assistance of the rein-deer ! 



The Red deer, though not in my time, was within the 

 memory of man, found on the hills of Hunneberg and Halle- 

 berg, which are close to Ronnum ; and still more recently, 

 on Kollandso, an island situated in the lake Wenern, 

 at a distance of some fifty miles from me ; I am not 



* For the purpose of procuring a herd of the Skogs-Ren for a friend in 

 England, I some years ago entrusted a considerable sum of money to an indi- 

 vidual named Lundberg, residing in the town of Lulea. The deer, it is true, were 

 soon purchased with my money ; but the man, instead of sending the herd to 

 me by land, as arranged, sailed away with them for Hamburg, to sell them on 

 his own account. It so happened, however, that he suffered something like 

 shipwreck near to Stockholm ; on which, at my request, Sir John Ross, our 

 Consul, took possession of the residue of the deer, eight in number, and 

 subsequently put them on board a ship bound for England; but a storm 

 unfortunately arose, and the poor animals in consequence all perished. 



