170 



room for a succeeding progeny. However, when the 

 season is over, the fawns return to their does, and 

 remain with them some time longer ; after which, they 

 quit them entirely, in order to begin an independent 

 family of their own. 



When the female is ready to bring forth, she seeks 

 a retreat in the thickest woods, being not less ap- 

 prehensive of the buck, from whom she then separates, 

 than of the wolf, the wild cat, and almost every ra- 

 Tening animal of the forest. She generally produces 

 two at a time. In about (en or twelve days these are 

 able to follow their dam, except in cases of warm pur- 

 suit, when their strength is not equal to the fatigue. 

 Upon such occasions the tenderness of the datn is 

 very extraordinary, leaving them in the deepest thicket 

 she offers herself to the danger, flies before the hounds 

 and does all in her power to lead them from the re- 

 treat where she has lodged her little ones. Such ani- 

 mals as are nearly upon her own level she boldly 

 encounters ; attacks the stag, the wild cat, and even 

 the wolf ; and while she has life> continues her efforts 

 to protect her young. 



Of all animals of the deer kind, the rein. deer is 

 the most useful. It is a native of the icy-regions of 

 the North, and cannot live in a more southern cli- 

 mate. Nature seems to have fitted it entirely for that 

 hardy race of mankind that live near the pole. As 

 these would find it impossible to subsist among their 

 Darren, snowy mountains, without ifs aid, so this 

 animal can live* only there. From it alone, the na- 

 tives of Lapland and Greenland supply most of their 

 wants. It answers the purposes of a horse, to con- 

 vey them and their scanty furniture, from one moun- 

 tain to another ; it answers the purposes of a cow, in 

 giving milk; and of the sheep, in furnishing them 

 with a warm, though a homely kind of clothing. 

 From this alone, therefore, they receive as many ad- 

 vantages, as we derive from three of our most useful 

 creatures, it is lower and stronger built than the 

 stag ; its legs arc shorter and thicker, and its hoofs 



