THE REINDEER. 561 
By careful attention, however, and good training, the Elk can be used as a beast of car- 
riage or burden, and from its great size and power is extremely valuable in that capacity. 
Two varieties of REINDEER inhabit the earth ; the one, called the Reindeer, being placed 
upon the northern portions of Europe and Asia, and the other, termed the Caribou, being 
restricted to North America. We will first describe the European variety. 
This animal is very variable in dimensions; the color is also variable, according to the 
season of year. In winter the fur is long, and of a grayish-brown tint, with the exception of 
REINDEER.—Rangifer tarandus. 
the neck, hinder quarters, abdomen, and end of nose, which are white. In the summer, the 
gray-brown hair darkens into a sooty brown, and the white portions become gray. 
In its wild state the Reindeer is a migratory animal, making annual journeys from the 
woods to the hills, and back again, according to the season. Their chief object in leaving the 
forests in the summer months appears to be their hope of escaping the continual attacks of 
mosquitoes and other insect pests that are found in such profusion about forest land. The 
principal plague of the Reindeer is one of the gad-flies, peculiar to the species, which deposits 
its eggs in the animal’s hide, and subjects it to great pain and continual harassment. Even in 
the domesticated state the Reindeer is obliged to continue its migrations, so that the owners 
of the tame herds are perforce obliged to become partakers in the annual pilgrimages, and to 
accompany their charge to the appropriate localities. 
The nature of the persecutions to which the Reindeer is continually subjected is well told 
by a correspondent to the Field newspaper: ‘The herd looked very miserable, as I thought ; 
there is nothing of the antlered monarch about the Reindeer, but a careworn, nervous expres- 
sion, which I do not wonder at, considering how they are bullied. There are creatures which 
