146 FIRST FORMS OF VEGETATION. 
extent ; and that if by an accident the forests 
are burnt to the ground, in a very short time the 
lichens re-appear, and resume all their original 
vigour. These plains, he adds, which strangers 
would call an accursed land, are fertile pastures 
to the Laplander, who, in possession of a tract of 
such country, deems himself a prosperous man. 
There vast herds of reindeer roam at will, enjoy- 
ing themselves where the horse, the camel, and 
the elephant would perish. The reindeer is the 
life, hope, and wealth of the inhabitants of those 
dreary and inclement regions. It draws their 
burdens with all the patience of the ass, yields 
its milk with all the docility of the cow, and 
transports its owner from place to place over the 
snowy and frozen plains, with all the fleetness of 
an Arabian horse. Its flesh serves for food; its 
tendons for strings to their bows, and its thick- 
furred skin for comfortable garments and bed- 
clothes to protect them from the rigours of an 
Arctic climate. And this useful animal is ex- 
clusively dependent upon an humble lichen for 
its support. What a deep interest therefore in- 
vests this otherwise insignificant plant! That 
vast numbers of families, living in pastoral sim- 
plicity in the cheerless and inhospitable Polar 
regions, should depend for their subsistence upon 
the uncultured and abundant supply of a plant so 
