THE MAMMALIA OF KOLGUEV 443 
I was assured by Alexander Samarokoff and his cousin that in the 
days before the reindeer plague there were no less than 25,000 reindeer 
on Kolguev. Most of these were owned by Russians. At the present 
time there are on Kolguev 2740 adult deer, and they are owned as 
follows : 
Alexander the Russian and Uano the Samoyed jointly own. . 400 
Uano himself owns : : 2 200 
Alexis the Russian and On Tipa the Samoyed jointly own. . 200 
Alexis himselfowns . : 3 ‘ ‘ 500 
On Tipa himself owns i 800 
Yelisei the Samoyed owns”. j : , ‘ 100 
Alexander’s nephew and Vasili Popoff i Russian) jointly own . 500 
The brothers Bulchikoff (Samoyeds) own . 3 : ‘ ‘ 40 
2740 
The value of a live reindeer is 10 roubles=£1. ‘He who has 
reindeer has everything,’ says a Russian proverb. It is true. Without 
their reindeer these Samoyeds could not exist ; with them they cannot 
want. Almost every part of the animal is of use. The hide makes 
clothes, bedding, and parts of harness. The bone makes arrow-heads, 
buttons, and thimbles. The sinew is used for cotton and thread. The 
horn makes arrow-tops (grooved for the string), powder measures, parts 
of harness, and buttons for toorrs (toorr-mahl). The flesh is eaten, and 
the animal and its parts have an exchange value. 
Travellers in Siberia and the east of the mainland tundra have 
assumed that a practice with which they are familiar there is general. 
I refer to the removal of one of the horns of each draught reindeer. 
This practice does not obtain on Kolguev, nor is it to be met with, I 
believe, to the west of the Petchora. Out of the very many hundreds 
of reindeer which I saw on the mainland not one steer had a horn 
removed ; or only in exceptional cases of ‘snow-shovels’ of abnormal 
growth. There is indeed no good reason for the practice. For the 
deer of a team have no difficulty in so carrying their heads that their 
horns shall not be entangled. Only very exceptionally does a deer 
become impatient in this respect. Ordinarily (and it is extremely 
interesting to watch) they arrange the relative positions of their horns 
by mutual compromise. 
