244 ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 
domesticate them, and are too poor to purchase powder 
and ball for their destruction. It does not appear 
indeed that they are much sought after, the cow and 
the sheep thriving extremely well upon the island, and 
supplying the place of the Deer in almost every respect. 
We may add that, according to Mr., now Sir Arthur, 
Brooke, an importation of six bucks and twenty-four 
does took place in 1777, about seven years after the 
period of the first mtroduction of the animal into 
Iceland. 
In so wide a range, although not including much 
diversity of climate, it may reasonably be expected that 
these animals should be subject to some variation ; but 
all the varieties that have hitherto been pointed out 
seem to be dependent on size, on trifling modifications 
of colour, and on the shape and branching of the horns. 
Thus we are told that in some instances the adult 
animal has been known to weigh so little as sixty or 
seventy pounds, while in others it has attained the 
almost incredible weight of four hundred. In this 
latter case, however, we cannot help suspecting that 
there is either gross exaggeration, or some confusion 
between the Rein-deer and the Elk. The bucks of the 
smaller American variety weigh, when in good condi- 
tion, according to Dr. Richardson, from ninety to a 
hundred and thirty pounds, exclusive of the offal ; 
those of the larger, according to Captain Franklin, 
from two hundred to two hundred and forty. The 
laws by which their growth is regulated appear to be 
directly the reverse of those that govern man and most 
other animals; for they obviously increase in magni- 
tude the nearer they approach the Pole, and dwindle 
in the less congenial regions of the south. Those of 
Norway and Sweden are of diminutive stature when 
compared with the Deer of Finmark and Lapland; 
