154 EELIQULE AQUITANIC^E. 



specially in question are precisely those of their early prototypes. The nature of 

 the Hippopotamus is too well known to admit of comment. This animal indubi- 

 tably requires a temperature almost tropical, with a vegetation of corresponding 

 luxuriance to sustain life. Deprived of these, in its natural state, it must die of 

 inanition. The Reindeer, on the other hand, under such conditions, must un- 

 questionably perish. The non-succulent Lichens, with other vegetable products 

 found only under a climate subject to great seasonal variations, for food, and the 

 power of alternating its habitat according to circumstances, are conditions indis- 

 pensable to its existence. 



That the Reindeer permanently inhabited the low lands of Pe"rigord, under the 

 hypothesis advanced by M. Lartet, that cooler seas and a more equable tempera- 

 ture rendered them at one time more congenial to its nature, is an assumption, 

 I would deferentially remark, nowise reconcilable with observation. Admitting, 

 for the argument's sake, the questionable position that such condition of climate 

 existed, the assumed consequence does not ensue. In the northern regions (and 

 I will particularize the frigid tract bordering on Hudson's Bay) the Flies, whose 

 agency as affecting the Reindeer I have before specially noted, are notoriously 

 troublesome. Around York Factory, situated on the verge of the great inlet 

 mentioned, while the river-banks are yet encumbered with packed ice, the sea 

 covered with floating drift, and when the ground is never thawed beyond a certain 

 depth, the Mosquitoes appear in myriads, followed a little later by swarms of the 

 Gad-fly an almost intolerable pest, corresponding, as I conceive, with the Rein- 

 deer-fly of Northern Europe. A breeze from seaward, reducing suddenly the 

 temperature, checks the torment for a while ; but with the cessation it is renewed 

 in all its vigour. Domestic Cattle under such circumstances can be preserved 

 only by providing continued smoke from smouldering fires ; while Man himself 

 is reduced to adopt various expedients to mitigate the almost incessant scourge. 

 Reindeer, the winter frequenters of these localities, are thus instinctively driven 

 to migrate as already shown. As I have before remarked, these animals are 

 peculiarly liable to the attacks of the (Estrus. Notwithstanding their regular 

 migrations, indeed, they do not entirely escape the punctures and the deposition 

 of the eggs of this formidable enemy. This is evidenced by the fact that, when 

 killed in the early summer, the skins are (many of them) almost worthless for use, 

 from the holes occasioned by the escaping larvae that have been engendered there. 

 From the native hunters I have learnt that at this season the Reindeer are 

 subject to disease of the brain, sometimes inducing death, through the larvae 



