40 REPORT ON THE INTRODUCTION OF 



are often light colored and have white spots. The natural color is 

 shown at its birth, and does not change as it grows older, as in the 

 case of a colt and some other animals. 



The legs of the fawn are long and very crooked, and it seems to be 

 ill proportioned. It looks, as it really is for a few days, top-heavy, 

 and either from this cause or that it becomes giddy headed in looking 

 down from what may appear to be a dizzy height, it will suddenly pitch 

 forward and drop all in a heap. It soon gets used to the lay of the 

 land, as it were, and gets up and lies down with perfect ease. 



Fawns commence to sprout their horns within a month after birth, 

 and by the 1st of September the horns are a foot or so long. 



Males are old enough to serve as bulls when 1 year old, and a 2- 

 year-old bull can serve about twenty females. Females bear young at 

 the age of two years. A female gives birth to its young from nine to 

 ten months after she has taken the bull. It sometimes happens that a 

 female will give birth to twins, but it is of very rare occurrence. 



It sometimes happens that a female can not give birth to its fawn, 

 and this has occurred in two cases with us. In both instances they 

 were taken from them dead, but the mothers survived uninjured. In 

 both instances it was the first young the mothers had carried. 



The cry of the old deer resembles the grunt of the hog, and that of 

 the fawn the same, only not so deep in tone. 



The care of a fawn after birth is very similar to that of a cow for its 

 calf. The fawn is licked all over until perfectly dry, when it will strug- 

 gle to its feet and finally find its mother's bag. The mother eats every 

 particle of her afterbirth, and in three or four days there are no evi- 

 dences from her appearance that she has recently given birth to a fawn, 

 except a slight swelling of the womb. That slovenly and unsightly 

 appearance which always follows in the cow after calving is entirely 

 absent in the reindeer after the second day. 



On April 3, I thought it would be a good time to experiment on 

 milking reindeer, and had a doe that had lost her fawn brought to the 

 station with the rest of the herd. 



Day broke on that morning at 4:15 a. m., and the sun had been up 

 about two hours when the herd arrived. The air was crisp and sharp, 

 and the thermometer registered about zero. Half of the natives from 

 the village were at the station, looking at the herd and assisting the 

 herders in rounding up the deer. The snow was frozen to a crust, and in 

 some places it was as smooth as glass. As the herd ran over it, a sharp 

 metallic sound was emitted, which was really musical. The deer were 

 all in good condition, and, although always quick and active, especially 

 when the herders are trying to lasso one, they seemed more frisky thar 

 usual this morning. 



Several attempts were made to lasso the female wanted, without suc- 

 cess, but she was finally caught in the rope; but a series of slidings 

 and tumblings was indulged in before the other herders could get to 



