546 UNGULATA. 



Toward the end of May, the wild Reindeer leave the forests and pro- 

 ceed toward the northern plains. They are thin, and covered with 

 wounds caused by the flies, but when they return in autumn, they are 

 healthy and fat, and supply an excellent article of food. In some years 

 this migration consists of thousands which, although divided into herds 

 of two or three hundred, follow close after each other, so that the whole 

 form an enormous column. Their track is always the same. In Siberia 

 a body of them has been seen which required two hours to pass the point 

 of observation. Equally long are the migrations of the Reindeer in the 

 Western Hemisphere. They leave the continent of America in spring, 

 and, using the frozen sea as a bridge, appear in Greenland, sojourning 

 there till the end of October, when they retrace their steps. In Norway 

 they do not migrate to the same extent, merely changing one mountain 

 range for another, ascending to the glaciers and snow-fields when sum- 

 mer is burning. The Wild Reindeer always live in companies, which 

 are larger than the herds of other deer, and more resembling the herds 

 of antelopes in South Africa. The writer has seen herds of twelve to 

 twenty in summer in the snows of the Fille Fjeld near Nystuen, but in 

 winter they gather to the number of three or four hundred. 



The Reindeer is admirably adapted by the conformation of its hoofs 

 for those northern regions which in summer are a morass, and in winter 

 a field of snow. Their gait is a quick walk, or a trot. At every step a 

 peculiar crackling is heard like the noise produced by an electric spark. 

 This noise is not caused by collision of the hoofs, or by one part of the 

 hoof striking against the other. Even tame reindeer can produce the 

 sound without lifting a foot from the ground, by merely swaying the 

 body. It seems to be produced in the interior of the limb, just like the 

 noise caused by pulling one's fingers. The Reindeer is an excellent 

 swimmer, and the wild ones never hesitate to plunge into any stream 

 that crosses their path. 



All the senses of the Reindeer are good ; its power of smell is remark- 

 able, it can hear as keenly as a stag, and its sight is so sharp that a 

 hunter, even coming against the wind, has to conceal himself most care- 

 fully. They are, according to the testimony of all sportsmen, shy and 

 cunning in the highest degree. During the summer their food consists 

 of Alpine plants, in winter they scrape away the snow with their feet, 

 and eat the lichens on the rocks. 



The chase of the Reindeer is of the highest importance to the North- 



