REINDEER. 241 



distributed in Northern America. But, as far as concerns 

 Western Europe, it must be regarded as an extinct species. 

 We have no evidence as to whether it crossed the Alps 

 or the Pyrenees, but it was certainly abundant at one time 

 in England and France, whence, however, it is unneces- 

 sary to say, it has long disappeared. Even at the present 

 day the reindeer, like the Laplander, is gradually retiring 

 northwards, unable to resist the pressure of advancing 

 civilisation. 



Even within the last ten years a few families of Lapps 

 might still be found in the neighbourhood of Nystuen, on 

 the summit of the Fillefjeld, and some other places in the 

 South of Norway, but none are now to be found on this 

 side of the Namsen river. The reindeer in a wild state, 

 indeed, even at the present day, is generally distributed, 

 though in small numbers, over the highest and wildest of 

 the Norwegian f jelds, protected however by stringent game 

 laws, but for which it would, probably, have ere now ceased 

 to exist. 



As far as we can judge from the present evidence, the first 

 appearance of the reindeer in Europe coincided with that of 

 the mammoth, and took place at a later period than that of 

 the cave-bear or Irish elk. It is generally found wherever 

 the mammoth and woolly-haired rhinoceros occur ; but, 

 on the other hand, as its remains are abundant in some 

 of the bone- caves in which the gigantic Pachyderms are 

 wanting, it is probable that it existed to a still later period. 

 The reindeer has not, however, been found in the Kjokken- 

 moddings, nor in any of the tumuli. It is also wanting in 

 the Swiss . Lake- villages, although we know that it was at 

 one time an inhabitant of Switzerland, bones of it hav- 

 ing been found in a cave at L'Echelle, between the great 

 and little Saleve, near Geneva, where they were mixed 

 with worked flints, ashes, and remains of the ox and horse. 



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