NOTES ON THE SCANDINAVIAN KEINDEER. 



217 



the number of points at the top of the horns very irregular ; in some instances 

 there were several points on the summit of one horn, and only the single beam 

 on the other. 



The rutting-season of the Norwegian Reindeer begins early in October; and 

 the more powerful stags then leave their solitary haunts and rejoin the large 

 herds. At this period the males utter a peculiar, hoarse, guttural roar, which 

 can be heard at a considerable distance, and, when listened to among the moun- 

 tains at night, would not be supposed to proceed from a Ruminant. 



The stags at this period become very pugnacious, and desperate battles take 

 place between them, in which their horns become sometimes locked together in the 

 same way as those on the two Elk skulls in the Hunterian Museum at the Royal 

 College of Surgeons, so that the animals are unable to extricate themselves. 



In former times great numbers of wild Reindeer were captured in Norway by 

 means of pitfalls, usually constructed in some narrow rocky pass which the Deer 

 would be obliged to traverse in single file. I have seen many remains of these con- 

 trivances, called "Rengraven;" but, as the present game-laws of Norway forbid 

 their use, they have been filled up. They were oblong in shape, about 6 to 8 feet 

 in length by 2-| in breadth, the sides of the pit being built in with flat stones, and 

 5 or 6 feet in depth. These were covered with small sticks and brushwood, over 

 which a thick layer of moss was laid. Of course, when the Deer trod on the 

 concealed trap, it was instantly engulfed ; and its struggles to escape were useless, 

 from the depth and narrowness of the pit. 



An ingenious and somewhat similar method of capturing the American " Cari- 

 bou " is practised by the Esquimaux inhabiting the country to the southward of 

 Chesterfield's Inlet. The sides of this trap, according to Dr. Richardson, are 

 built of slabs of snow, cut as if for a snow house. An inclined plane of snow 

 leads to the entrance of the pit,, which is about 5 feet deep, and of sufficient 

 dimensions to contain two or three full-grown Deer. The pit is covered with a 

 large thin slab of snow, which the animal is enticed to tread upon by a quantity 

 of the lichens on which it feeds being placed conspicuously on an eminence 

 beyond the opening. The exterior of the trap is banked up with snow, so as to 

 resemble a natural hillock, and care is taken to render it so steep on all sides but 

 one, that the Deer must pass over the mouth of the trap before it can reach the 

 bait. The slab is sufficiently strong to bear the weight of a Deer until it has 

 passed the middle, when it revolves on two short axles of wood, precipitates the 

 Deer into the trap, and returns to its place again, in consequence of the lower 

 end being heavier than the other. 



