454 WILD ANIMALS. 



Eev. M. R. Barnard assures sportsmen who contemplate visiting 

 Norway that wild reindeer are certainly to be met with in Finmark, 

 and in JSTordland, yet they are comparatively few in numbers, for 

 most of the deer in these provinces are tame ones belonging to the 

 Laps. It has been computed that this latter variety number over 

 28,000 head, and the reindeer being the sole possession of the people, 

 it is almost needless to say that they are most jealously guarded. 

 He also draws attention to the fact that there is a heavy penalty for 

 shooting one purposely, and cautions Englishmen who go out there 

 for sport not to indulge in any " eccentricities " with the animals, 

 ■ for the Laps occasionally take the law into their own hands, as 

 the following history proves : — 



" Some years ago a number of convicts escaped from the 

 fortress at Vardohuis. In order to obtain food, they had recourse 

 to killing tame reindeer. This exasperated the Laps beyond 

 measure. They tracked these unfortunate poachers from place to 

 place, slowly, but as surely as the bloodhounds follow on the track 

 of a runaway slave. For years nothing was heard of them, till 

 at last their bleached skeletons were found, bearing evident signs 

 that their former inmates had fallen into the hands of their 

 remorseless and avenging pursuers." 



A writer of a book on Lapland observes that reindeer have 

 nothing of the antlered monarch of the forest look about them, 

 but a careworn, nervous one, which, he adds, "I do not wonder at, 

 considering how they are bullied. There are creatures which sting 

 them all over, and creatures which lay their eggs in their eyes and 

 nostrils, and make themselves comfortable under their skin ; and 

 wolves, and gluttons, and dogs, and Laps ; in short, barring a cat, 

 I know of no animal that is so worried." De Brooke also remarks 

 upon the same subject, that " no creature suffers more than the 

 reindeer from a species of gad-fly, as it not only torments him 

 incessantly by its sting, but deposits its eggs in holes which it has 

 made in the hide. The poor animal is tormented to such a degree, 

 that were the Laps to remain in the forest from June to August, 

 they would run the risk of losing the greater part of their herds, 

 either by actual sickness, or by the deer being off on their own 

 accord to escape the ' fly.' For these reasons the Lap is driven 



