THE LAPLAND ALPS. 309 



is grey, blacker when the new coat first 

 comes on, whiter before it falls. The hair 

 is not readily plucked off, but easily broken. 

 The horns of the female are upright, or 

 slightly bent backward, furnished with one 

 or two branches in front near the base, the 

 summit sometimes undivided, sometimes 

 cloven. Those of the male are often two 

 feet and a half long, and their points are 

 as far distant from each other. They are 

 variously branched, with more or less nu- 

 merous subdivisions. These animals cast 

 their horns every year ; the males imme- 

 diately after the rutting season, about the 

 end of November ; the females in May, 

 after they have brought forth their young. 

 If the females are barren, it is known by 

 their casting the horns in winter*. Those 



* These particulars concerning the casting of the 

 horns of the reindeer, much confused in the manu- 

 script, are corrected from the admirable history of this 

 a.n\ma.\ in the ^moenitQies yicademiccB, v. 4. 150. It 

 is there said that the castrated males also cast their horns, 

 but rarely before they are nine years old. The sooner 

 they begin, the more healthy they are esteemed. 



