178 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC KEINDEEK INTO ALASKA. 



infoniu'd by the chief of the Departinont of Agricultuiv, Piiiuo AV. I. 

 jNIassalski. that " reindeer feed in winter on moss, and in summer they 

 prefer juicy grass, especially ' Polygonum Bistorta, ^Manyanthcs,' and all 

 other juicy grasses. However, it is easy to accustom theui to eat hay." 

 1 am. sir. youi' obedient servant, 



AV. K. Hollow AY, 



Consul- Gou^ral. 

 Hon. David J. Hill, 



A^saistciNt /Scc/rtari/ ('/' /State, Wius/tliK/ton, D. C. 



REINDEER. 



IKxlnict from a mtiiuiu l>y T. Do Witt Tiilmagf, ]>.!)., from I'siilnis -J-J:!.] 



My friends, that is one reason why 1 like the Bible so nuich — its 

 allusions arc so true to nature. Its partridges are real partridges, its 

 ostriches real ostriches, and its reindeer real reindeer. I do not won- 

 der that this antlered glory of the text makes the himter's eye sparkle 

 and his cheek glow and his respiration quicken. To saj' nothing of 

 its usefulness, although it is the most useful of all game, its tiesh 

 delicious, its skin turned into human apparel, its sinews fashioned 

 into bowstrings, its antlers putting handles on cutler}', and the shav- 

 ings of its horn used as a pungent restorative, the name taken from 

 the hart and called hartshorn. But putting aside its usefulness, this 

 enchanting creature seems made out of gracefulness and elasticity. 

 What an eye, with a liquid brightness as if gathered up from a hundred 

 lakes at sunset I The horns, a coronal branching into every possible 

 curve, and after it seems complete ascending into other projections of 

 exquisiteness, a tree of polished bone, uplifted in pride, or swung 

 down for awful combat. The hart is velocity' embodied. Timidity 

 impersonated. The enchantment of the woods. Its eye lustrous in 

 life and pathetic in death. The splendid animal a complete rhythm 

 of muscle, and bone, and color, and attitude, and locomotion, whether 

 couched in the grass among the shadows, or a living bolt shot through 

 the forest, or turning at bay to attack the hounds, or rearing for its 

 last fall under the ])uckshot of the trapper. It is a splendid appear- 

 ance tliat the painter's pencil fails to sketch, and only a hunter's 

 dream on a }>ill()w of hendock ;it the foot of St. Regis is able to picture. 



