ARTIODACTYLES 



HJ 



lowermost tyne (so-called brow tyne) of either the right or left antler — 

 the female also bears antlers — is always larger than the one opposite, 

 and bent in such a manner as to stand vertically over the nose, forming 

 with it a kind of snow-plough, as it were.*' The inhabitants of the North, 

 have domesticated the reindeer, and keep it in large herds. On its 

 welfare depends that of the country ; but when decimated either by foot 

 and mouth disease or the ravages of beasts of prey (especially wolves), 

 poverty, misery, and even famine, invade the huts of the nomadic 

 inhabitants. Its disappearance (or that of the reindeer moss) would 

 mean the cessation of all human life in those latitudes. For the 

 reindeer is all and everything to the native of the North : it carries 



Reindeer. (The animal in the foreground one-twenty-fifth natural size). 



him in his light sledges over the endless snow-wastes ; its skin provides 

 him with tent-coverings, clothes, and leather ; its flesh, milk, and blood 

 supply him with his most important articles of food ; from its tendons 

 he manufactures thread for sewing, from the intestines ropes for binding, 

 from the bones and antlers spears for fishing, fishing-rods, and other 

 utensils ; the tongue and the still warm marrow of the bones are 

 considered delicacies, and even the contents of the intestines are utilized 

 as vegetables. 



* In the animal depicted in the foreground of our illustration, it is the left brow tyne which 

 thus enlarged ; the right is so short that it is completely hidden by the left antler. 



