76 



FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



drowned in the water, or are shattered at the foot of the cliffs ; 

 the remainder speed on ; other hundreds and thousands fall victims 

 to the voracity of Arctic and red foxes, wolves and gluttons, rough- 

 legged buzzards and ravens, owls and skuas which have followed 

 them ; the survivors pay no heed. Where these go, how they end, 

 none can say, but certain it is that the tundra behind them is as if 





Fig. 8. The Reindeer (Tarandux rangifer). 



dead, that a number of years pass ere the few who have remained 

 behind, and have managed to survive, slowly multiply, and visibly 

 re-people their native fields. 11 



A third animal characteristic of the tundra is the reindeer. 

 Those who know this deer, in itself by no means beautiful, only in 

 a state of captivity and slavery, can form no idea of what it is under 

 natural conditions. Here in the tundra one learns to appreciate 

 the reindeer, to recognize and value him as a member of a family 

 which he does not disgrace. He belongs to the tundra, body and 



