220 A SPRING AND SUMMER IN LAPLAND. 



of these elk, and I noticed one peculiarity in the 

 coarse hair of the elk which I never recollect 

 seeing in any other animal, viz., that it is quite 

 brittle, and can be snapped in half like a carrot ; 

 it appears as it were rotten. This is also the case 

 with the hair of the reindeer, at least many of 

 them, and the Lap settlers say it is owing to the 

 quantity of dry moss they eat. Can this be so ? 

 But the reindeer skins make capital rugs for 

 sledges, and I never saw the elk skin used for this 

 purpose. The skin of a large elk is worth about 

 20s. here, and the meat in a town perhaps 6d. per 

 pound. I claimed the head and horns of the bull, and 

 the two forefeet of the cow, as rny share of the booty. 

 I may mention that we found in the forest an 

 immense bull elk lying dead, probably shot last 

 winter, for it was little more than a skeleton. I 

 secured the horns, which were the largest I ever 

 saw. It seems that the horns of the elk are full 

 grown in length at five years old, but that after- 

 wards they yearly increase in breadth and number 

 of tips up to eighteen or twenty. I observed, 

 however, in all the horns which I saw that there 

 is always one more spike on one side than on 

 the other. I shall not weary the reader's patience 

 with entering here into the natural history of the 

 elk farther than to say that from what I could see 

 and learn, they are very domestic for a wild animal, 



