446 WILD ANIMALS. 



Murray, commenting on this increase, says : " A tappy future 

 was anticipated for these animals. It was thought that although 

 in Lapland they were losers by their connection with man, Iceland 

 should make up for all. There is in the interior a tract which Sir G. 

 Mackenzie computed at not less than forty thousand square miles, 

 without a single human habitation, and almost entirely unknown 

 to the natives themselves. There are no wolves ; the Icelanders 

 would keep out the bears; and the reindeer, being almost 

 unmolested by man, would have no enemy whatever, unless they 

 had brought with them their own tormenting gad-fly. The anti- 

 cipation has not been reahzed. Lord Dufferin speaks of them as 

 anything but common, and Mr. Baring-Gould says that they are 

 almost confined to the north-eastern part of the island, where they 

 are in some numbers." 



In Spitzbergen, Finland, and Lapland, the reindeer attains its 

 perfection in size and strength, for the animals generally to be 

 seen in Norway and Sweden are in every way inferior. 



In the New World, the reindeer, or caribou, as it is there called, 

 extends through Greenland, Canada, and Newfoundland. The 

 animal of these countries differs in the construction of the horns 

 and in other minor particulars, so that it is easy to distinguish the 

 American from the old world animal, and in consequence some 

 naturalists have contended that the two varieties are specifically 

 distinct ; this opinion has not, however, been generally accepted. 



Although even at the present day the range of the reindeer is 

 a wide one, yet its habitat is confined to the northern regions of 

 the world, but in earher times this was not the case, for remains 

 of these animals have been found in many parts of France. In 

 the southern part of that country, especially, immense numbers of 

 their bones have been discovered, and it is conjectured that the 

 animals were used as food by the human dwellers in the caves. 

 In "Wales, some few years ago, many hundreds of reindeer antlers 

 were found in the bone-caves of Glamorganshire, and the remains 

 of many distinct varieties have been discovered in certain parts of 

 England. 



The reindeer differs in one important feature from all other 

 members of the deer family in that the females possess antlers as 



