OUR HUMBLE HELPERS 



accustomed, no doubt it would starve to death the 

 first winter ; but it is content with a kind of food that 



none of our animals 

 would touch. It is a 

 lichen, white in color 

 and divided into a 

 iliK multitude of branches, 

 close together and pre- 

 senting the appearance 

 of a little bush a few 

 inches high. It grows 

 on the ground, which it 

 Reindeer entirely covers for im- 



mense stretches. During the winter the reindeer 

 scratch the snow with their fore hoofs and uncover 

 the coarse plant, softened by moisture ; and this plant 

 they browse. Thus it is that interminable fields of 

 snow, the desolate abodes of famine, supply never- 

 theless sufficient pasturage for these animals. This 

 lichen, last vegetable resource of the extreme north, 

 is called reindeer moss, and is found everywhere, 

 in the most arid lands, between the poles and the 

 equator. Among the underbrush of our most bar- 

 ren hills you will find it in abundance, fresh and sup- 

 ple in winter, dried up and crackling under the feet 

 in summer." 



t ' The reindeer ought to live in our country," Jules 

 remarked, " since there is lichen for it to feed on." 

 "The climate is much too warm for it. Hardly 

 would it be able to endure the mildness of our win- 

 ters ; and how about the heat of our summers ? It 



