THE WILD REINDEER OF NORWAY. 89 



in fact, a collateral branch of the mountain ranges of 

 Norway. By this same route, too, the Lapps un- 

 questionably made their first appearance into Norway. 

 Indeed, the very existence of this extraordinary people 

 seems to have been mysteriously connected with that of 

 the reindeer ; and it is more than probable that the 

 reindeer served as their pilots from the remote parts of 

 Asia to the mountain ranges of Norway, while at a 

 later period, again, the paths made by deer and Lapps 

 from the fjords to the fjelds served as tracks for the 

 Gothic race on their wandering up from the coast into 

 the interior. 



This seems to be the only reasonable solution of the 

 fact that, in the alluvial deposits of Scania, fossil 

 remains of reindeer are found bearing incontestable 

 signs of being the remains of animals exactly similar to 

 those now existing on the fjelds of Lapland and 

 Norway, whilst in the intermediate parts not a single 

 fossil remain has ever been discovered. 



The wild reindeer may be found on the high fjelds of 

 Norway as far south as lat. 60, wherever the altitude 

 is above the limit of the willow and the birch, viz., 

 about 3,400 feet. They are more numerous in the west 

 and south-west of the mountain plateaux than in the 

 north-east, probably owing to the absence of Lapps in 

 those parts, who hunt them whenever and wherever 

 they can. Neither is the wolf, the Lapp's constant 



