THE REIN-DEER. 339 



luxury and certainty of time of British travelling, there 

 must be much spiriting incitement after the management 

 of the pulk is obtained. 



The Rein-deer used for travelling are often kept by per- 

 sons, and let out for that purpose, their owners generally 

 accompanying any distant expedition, and acting as guides. 

 A Lapland family generally possesses a herd of fifty to 

 five hundred head ; those with less than a hundred, how- 

 ever, are only able to enjoy a precarious living, and two 

 or more families generally join their wealth; while with 

 five hundred a man can support his family with curd, 

 cheese, and milk, during summer, and in winter can kill 

 deer. To kill venison is looked upon as independence ; 

 one possessing a herd of a thousand deer, is talked of as a 

 rich man, and a few individuals are said to possess the 

 extravagant wealth of from fifteen hundred to two thou- 

 sand. 



The food of the Rein-deer, in Europe during summer, 

 is the young shoots of the birch and willow, with a variety 

 of mountain pasture and shrubs. During summer, a mi- 

 gration to the coast appears essential to their health ; and 

 when in a state of domestication, this is yearly observed 

 by the family of the Laplander migrating with his herds, 

 for a sojourn of some months to the vicinity of the sea. In 

 winter, the food consists in a great part of various lichens, 

 but principally the rein-deer moss as it is called. In 

 seeking for this, they use their broad hoofs, and sometimes 

 the horns, to remove the snow, and the sense which the 

 animal possesses to search for the plant, and to know the 

 part of the ground where it grows, under a deep covering 

 of snow, is extremely fine. " The natural quickness in 

 this respect," says Broke, " is amazing. When a halt with 

 the sledges was made, they quickly set themselves to un- 

 cover the moss, but if the stoppage happened to be on a 

 lake, the attempt was never made, though the snow, as in 

 the other case, was some feet in depth above the ice." 



