450 "WILD ANIMALS. 



is fastened round the horns, the animal is dragged to the milking- 

 place and there securely tied ; another animal is afterwards taken 

 in the same way, and so on till all have been milked. The skill of 

 the Laplanders in the use of this noose can only be compared to 

 that of the savages of Africa, or the bull-takers in Brazil." 



Du Ohaillu * describes the process of milking as peculiar : the 

 women hold in one hand a wooden scoop and frequently have to 

 press hard with the other, for the thick fluid seems to come with 

 difficulty. From the scoop the milk is poured into a keg-like 

 vessel, closed by a sliding cover, and so contrived that it can be 

 carried on the back of an animal. " I was surprised," he remarks, 

 " at the small yield — some not giving enough to fill a small coffee- 

 cup ; but it was very thick and rich — so much so, that water 

 had to be added before drinking ; it is exceedingly nourishing, and 

 has a strong flavour, not unlike that of goat's milk. The milk 

 of the reindeer forms a very important item in the food of the 

 Lapps, and possesses an amount of nutrition far greater than that 

 of the cow or the ass ; strange to say, the butter made from it is 

 so bad that one might almost fancy that he was eating tallow; 

 accordingly, the Lapps make very little butter, but cheese is 

 produced in large quantities." 



Sir A. De C. Brooke, in his book " A Winter in Lapland and 

 Sweden," remarks that a mere glance at the reindeer will con- 

 vince us how admirably Providence has qualified this animal for 

 the Polar regions, and how indispensably necessary it is to the 

 very existence of the inhabitants of these countries. " The peculiar 

 make and strength observable in the neck, shoulders, and fore- 

 quarters," he states, " would alone mark it as peculiarly adapted by 

 nature for the purposes of draught, while its loins, the extraordinary 

 degree of muscular power developed in the general formation, the 

 thickness and bore of the legs, confirm it in as great a degree. 

 The hoofs of the animal are wonderfully adapted to the country 

 it inhabits ; instead of being narrow and pointed, Hke those of the 

 roebuck or the fallow-deer, they are remarkably broad, flat, and 

 spreading ; and when it sets down its foot, it has the power of 

 contracting or spreading its hoofs in a greater or less degree, 

 * " Tlie Land o.f the Midnight Sun." 



