162 Animal Life 
is a thin, lthe-looking 
animal, somewhat smaller 
than his English relative. 
As everyone knows, the 
Arctic fox is one of those 
animals on whose coat 
the seasons effect a 
change in the matter of 
colour, altering as a rule 
from a darker hue to 
white or piebald in 
autumn, though I have 
seen these animals in the [Se S35 . See stasis 
HET? NOVA. YAM ORNS Baokagueri Gy dh THe 
quite dark even in the 
winter months. The most interesting characteristic of the Arctic fox is perhaps his 
habit of stormg up a larder for use during the long winter months, when food is scarce. 
The commonest of the Arctic Seals, of which there are many species, is the 
Greenland Harp-Seal, for whose capture scores of vessels annually leave the American, 
British, and Norwegian ports. A single vessel would take sometimes as many as 40,000 
seals, which will give some idea of the immense destruction of life. The natural 
result has followed, namely, a very great reduction in their numbers. The Fur-Seal, 
the skin of which is used for ladies’ jackets, comes only from Alaska and the islands off 
that coast. There was once a large fishery for fur-seals in the Antarctic regions, but 
indiscriminate slaughter almost exterminated them, and the survivors are now protected 
and slowly increasing in numbers. 
Like the seals, Reindeer, the great draught animals of the sub-Arctic regions, 
have a very wide distribution. They are the mainstay of the Samoyads, who to a large 
extent live upon thei flesh, and of course make much use of them as draught animals. 
The same remark, but in a lesser degree, holds good with regard to the Lapps. The 
Samoyads never drive less than two reindeer abreast, sometimes as many as seven or 
eight, whereas the Lapps only harness up one; but that one as a rule is much larger. 
The reindeer is the only deer of which both the male and female have antlers. 
The Caribou of Northern America are varieties of reindeer. In parts of Spitzbergen, 
Nova ZGembla, Siberia, and even in the dense forests near the shores of the White Sea, 
wild reindeer are still to be met with. 
a of v 
With the remaining 
animals to be mentioned 
here I must deal very 
briefly, as the space at 
my disposal is lmited. 
The Wolf in Europe is 
met with chiefly im two 
varieties—the large. wolf 
of Russia, which goes 
about as a rule singly, 
and a smaller variety 
which hunts in packs. 
The first 1s seldom 
dangerous, whereas the 
eee ee ES, a ik TAME MUSK-OX IN ICELAND. latter, owing to thew 
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