THE DEER KIND. 



275 



of nature. While his fields are clothed with 

 moss, he envies neither the fertility nor the 

 verdureof the more southern landscape; dress- 

 ed up warmly in his deer-skin clothes, with 

 shoes and gloves of the same materials, he 

 drives his herds along the desert, fearless and 

 at ease, ignorant of any higher luxury than 

 what their milk and smoke-dried flesh affords 

 him. Hardened to the climate, he sleeps in 

 the midst of ice ; or awaking, dozes away his 

 time with tobacco; while his faithful dogs sup- 

 ply his place, and keep the herd from wander- 

 ing. The deer, in the meantime, with instincts 

 adapted to the soil, pursue their food, though 

 covered in the deepest snow. They turn it 

 up with their noses, like swine; and, even 

 though its surface be frozen and stiff, yet the 

 hide is so hardened in that part, that they easi- 

 ly overcome the difficulty. It sometimes, how- 

 ever, happens, though but rarely, that the win- 

 ter commences with rain, and a frost ensuing, 

 covers the whole country with a glazed crust 

 of ice. Then, indeed, both the rein-deer and 

 the Laplander are undone ; they have no pro- 

 visions laid up in case of accident, and the 

 only resource is to cut down the large pine- 

 trees that are covered with moss, which fur- 

 nishes but a scanty supply ; so that the great- 

 est part of the herd is then seen to perish 

 without a possibility of assistance. It some- 

 times also happens, that even this supply is 

 wanting; for the Laplander often burns down 

 his woods, in order to improve and fertilize 

 the soil which produces the moss, upon which 

 he feeds his cattle. 



In this manner, the pastoral life is still con- 

 tinued near the pole ; neither the coldness of 

 the winter, nor the length of the nights ; nei- 

 ther the wildness of the forests,nor the vagrant 

 disposition of the herd, interrupt the even te- 

 nour of the Laplander's life. By night and 

 day he is seen attending his favourite cattle, 

 and remains unaffected, in a season which 

 would be speedy death to those bred up in 

 a milder climate. He gives himself no un- 

 easiness to house his herds, or to provide a 

 winter subsistence for them ; he is at the trou- 

 ble neither of manuring his grounds, nor bring- 

 ing in his harvest ; he is not the hireling of 

 another's luxury; all his labours are to obviate 

 the necessities of his own situation ; and these 

 he undergoes with cheerfulness, as he is sure 



NO. 23 & 24. 



to enjoy the fruits of his own industry. If, 

 therefore, we compare the Laplander with 

 the peasant of more southern climates, we 

 shall have little reason to pity his situation ; 

 the climate in which he lives is rather terri- 

 ble to us than to him ; and as for the rest, he 

 is blessed with liberty, plenty, and ease. The 

 rein-deer alonesupplies him with all the wants 

 of life, and some of the conveniences ; ser- 

 ving to show how many advantages nature is 

 capable of supplying, when necessity gives 

 the call. Thus the poor, little helpless native, 

 who was originally, perhaps, driven by fear or 

 famine into those inhospitable climates, would 

 seem, at first view, to be the most wretched 

 of mankind : but it is far otherwise ; he looks 

 round among the few wild animals that his 

 barren country can maintain, and singles out 

 one from among them,and that of a kind which 

 the rest of mankind have not thought worth 

 taking from a state of nature ; this he culti- 

 vates, propagates, and multiplies ; and from 

 this alone derives every comfort that can sof- 

 ten the severity of his situation. 



The rein-deer of this country are of two 

 kinds, the wild and the tame. The wild are 

 larger and stronger, but more mischievous 

 than the others. Their breed, however, is 

 preferred to that of the tame; and the female 

 of the latter is often sent into the woods, from 

 whence she returns home impregnated by one 

 of the wild kind. These are fitter for draw- 

 ing the sledge, to which the Laplander accus- 

 toms them betimes, and yokes them to it by 

 a strap, which goes round the neck, arid 

 comes down between their legs. The sledge 

 is extremely light, and shod at the bottom 

 with the skin of a young deer, the hair turned 

 to slide on the frozen snow. The person who 

 sits on this, guides the animal with a cord, 

 fastened round the horns, and encourages it 

 to proceed with his voice, and drives it with 

 a goad. Some of the wild breed, though by 

 far the strongest, are yet found refractory, and 

 often turn upon their drivers ; who have then 

 no other resource but to cover themselves 

 with their sledge, and let the animal vent its 

 fury upon that. But it is otherwise with those 

 that are tame ; no creature can be more ac- 

 tive, patient, and willing : when hard pushed 

 they will trot nine or ten Swedish miles, or 

 between fifty and sixty English miles, at one 

 2 Y 



