THE WILD REINDEER OF NORWAY. 103 



above suppositions is certainly a far more reasonable 

 conclusion to arrive at than to have to believe in 

 the existence of the roe in Norway. 



As has been above remarked, the tame reindeer are 

 considerably smaller than the wild. Moreover, the 

 reindeer found in Spitsbergen are much smaller than 

 the wild reindeer in Norway, though belonging to 

 one and the same species. It is a well-known fact that 

 a difference of 500 feet in altitude brings one to a tem- 

 perature and vegetable growth corresponding to those 

 existing under a latitude 200 miles further north. 

 Now, according to this computation, the reindeer which 

 frequent the highest parts of the Jotun Fjeld (which is 

 two, three, or perhaps four thousand feet above the 

 plateaux in the east and south-eastern parts) should 

 correspond in size with those found 850 to 1,700 miles 

 further to the north, which brings one to about to 

 Spitzbergen.* Indeed, in the valleys of the Jotun 

 Fjeld, whose peaks rear their summit up through 

 endless masses of ice and snow which never melts, 

 a Polar climate and a vegetation similar to that in 

 Spitzbergen is found to exist. 



But to come back to our subject. In the summer 

 the food of the reindeer consists mainly of grass, leaves, 

 buds of birch, &c., and moss. It seems especially to 

 have a predilection for acid and bitter plants. The 



* And yet some large bucks have been killed in the Jotun Fjeld. 



