STRANGE ANIMALS AND THEIR WAYS. 361 



have passed looking as if it had been plowed, or burned 

 with tire. They march principally by night, resting during 

 the day, but never seek to settle in any particular locality, 

 however abundant the food may be in it, for their final 

 destination is the distant sea, and nothing animate or in- 

 animate, if it can be surmounted, retards the straight, on- 

 ward tide of their advance. 



7. When the reindeer gets enveloped in the living 

 stream, they will not even go round its limbs, but bite its 

 legs until, in its agony and terror, it plunges madly about, 

 crushing them to death in hundreds, and even killing them 

 with its teeth. If a man attempts to stem the living tor- 

 rent, they leap upon his legs ; and, if he lay about him 

 with a stick, they seize it with their teeth, and hold on to 

 it with such determined pertinacity that he may swing it 

 rapidly round his head without compelling them to loosen 

 their hold. If a corn- or hay-rick be in the way, they eat 

 their way through it ; and, on arriving at the smooth face 

 of a rock, they pass round it, forming up in close column 

 again on the other side. Lakes, however broad, are boldly 

 entered, and the passage attempted ; and rivers, however 

 deep and rapid, are forded, impediments in the water being 

 as boldly faced as those on shore. They have been known 

 to pass over a boat, and to climb on to the deck of a ship, 

 passing, without stop or stay, into the water on the farther 

 side. 



8. Their natural instincts are not in abeyance during 

 this migration, as females are frequently seen accompanied 

 by their young, and carrying in their teeth some one which 

 had succumbed to the fatigues of the march, which might 

 not be stayed until the helpless one was recruited. 



9. Foxes, lynxes, weasels, kites, owls, etc., hover on 

 their line of march and destroy them in hundreds. The 

 fish in the rivers and lakes lay a heavy toll upon them, and 

 vast numbers are drowned, and die by other accidents in 



