MAMMAL1A—REINDEER. 347 
of woods and morasses, which are no longer to be seen. Gaul, under the 
same latitude as Canada, was, two thousand years ago, what Canada is at 
the present time; that is, a climate cold enough for these animals to live 
in. We find him in America, in the highest latitudes, because the cold is 
greater there than in Europe. The reindeer can bear even the most exces- 
sive cold. He is found in Spitsbergen ; he is common in Greenland, and in 
the most northern parts of Lapland. 
The reindeer is shorter and more squat than the stag; his legs are shorter 
and thicker, and his feet wider; the hair very thickly furnished, and his 
antlers much longer, and divided into a greater number of branches, with 
flat terminations. The reindeer is become domestic among the enlightened 
part of mankind. The Laplanders have no other beast. In this icy climate, 
which only receives the oblique rays of the sun—where there is a season 
of night as well as day —where the snow covers the earth from the begin- 
ning of autumn, as well as spring, and where the verdure of the summer 
consists in the bramble, juniper, and moss, could man form any idea but 
of famine? The horse, the ox, the sheep, all our useful animals, find no sub- 
sistence there, nor can they resist the rigor of the cold. He has been obliged 
to search among the inhabitants of the forest, for the least wild and most 
profitable animals. The Laplanders have done what ourselves should do: 
if we were to lose our cattle, we should then be obliged to tame the stag 
and roebucks of forests, to supply their place; and I am persuaded we 
should gain our point, and we should presently learn to draw as much utility 
from them, as the Laplanders do from the reindeer. We ought to be sensi- 
ble, by this example, how far nature has extended her liberality towards us. 
We do not make use of all the riches which she offers us; the fund is 
much more immense than we imagine. She has bestowed on us the horse, 
the ox, the sheep, and all our other domestic animals, to serve us, to feed 
us, and to clothe us; and she has, besides, species in reserve which would 
be able to supply this defect, and which would only require us to subject 
them, and to make them useful to our wants. 
Man does not sufficiently know what nature can do, nor what can be 
done with her. Instead of seeking for what he does not know, he likes 
better to abuse her in what he does know. 
In comparing the advantages which the Laplanders derive from the tame 
reindeer, with these which we derive from our domestic anima!s, we shall 
see that this animal is worth two or three of them. He is used as horses are, 
to draw sledges and other carriages; he travels with great speed and swift- 
ness ; he easily goes a hundred miles a day, and runs with as much certain- 
ty upon the frozen snow as upon the mossy down. The female affords 
milk, more substantial and more nourishing than the cow; the flesh is very 
good to eat, the coat makes an excellent fur, and his dressed hide becomes 
a very supple and a very durable leather. Spoons are also made of his 
bones, bowstrings and thread of his tendons, and glue is manufactured from. 
