FAUNA. Ill 



want of cheap fuel. In these cold regions the growth of timber is slow, so that 

 the destruction of the forests causes a general impoverishment of the land. 

 While the Norwegians consume relatively about five times as much wood for 

 local purposes as do the French, the product is five times less in an equal area. 

 Hence the recent measures that have been taken for the preservation of forest 

 lands. By the law passed in 1875 proprietors in the northern provinces of 

 Sweden are bound to protect stumps less than 10 inches in thickness at man's 

 heiffht, and in the island of Gotland the trade in wood for sale has been 

 interdicted. 



ScANDlîs'AVIAN FaUNA. 



The wild animals formerly frequenting the Scandinavian woodlands have 

 become rare. A price has been set upon bears, wolves, lynxes, gluttons, as well as 

 foxes and birds of prey, which are now seldom seen except in remote districts. The 

 elk has not yet disappeared from the Norwegian highlands, and a herd still roams 

 north of Christiania. The roebuck and stag are also met with in the Norwegian 

 forests, and some of the islands near Bergen and Trondhjem are hunting grounds 

 for their owners. The aurochs lived in Scania during the stone age, and in the 

 Lund Museum there is a specimen still showing a flint wound. The beaver still 

 survives, and the hare, white in winter as the surrounding snows, is common in 

 the hilly northern districts, while the lemmings {Lcmnus Non-eyiciis) descend in 

 multitudes from the Norwegian plateaux to the sea. The reindeer is no longer 

 found wild in the Swedish valleys, though numerous herds roamed till recently 

 on the Norwegian uplands, the Telemark mountains, and the Dovre plateau. The 

 tame reindeer of Lapland is distinct from the species whose remains are occasion- 

 ally found in the peat beds of Scania. The former came probably from the east 

 with the nomad immigrants from North Russia. 



Nearly all the birds of the southern shores of the Baltic are found also in 

 Scandinavia, though in lesser numbers. But countless flocks of sea-fowl frequent 

 the rocky shores and islands of Norway. Some of the Ijofoten and Tester Aalen 

 groups bear the name of nijker, or " bird hills," owing to the numbers of penguins, 

 gulls, mews, frequenting them, and from a distance giving the rocks the appear- 

 ance of so much trembling vapour. The fluttering of their wings is heard miles 

 away, and close by resembles the soughing of the winds. The absence of ports or 

 sheltering creeks renders these islands very inaccessible, but in calm weather they 

 are visited by the hunter. The eider, rare in the southern fiords, is very common 

 in the North Finmark islands as well as in the Tester Aalen and Lofoten groups, 

 here forming one of the chief resources of the inhabitants. 



The Norwegian waters abound in fish to a far greater extent than do those of 

 the Swedish coast. Of all the Scandinavian inlets the richest in marine life is 

 the Molde-fiord, between Aalesund and Christianssund, the reputed home of the 

 fabulous " sea serpent." At depths of from 100 to 200 fathoms here are taken the 

 Lota, a species of cod ; the Corcf/onns silus, a salt-water salmon ; the Spiiiax niger, a 

 peculiar species of shark, whose skin seems bristling with crystalline needles ; and 



