Quadrupeds. 3105 



too, by which the reindeer is fastened to the sledge, is very strange ; 

 it consists of a collar and a single trace, which trace is brought under 

 the belly between the legs, and so is fastened to the front of the 

 sledge. The reins are attached to the horns ; and the traveller, well 

 muffled in reindeer-skins, with an apron of wolf or bear-skin, and 

 reclining in his little light sledge, starts at full gallop, cheers on his 

 steed with wild halloos, and performs enormous distances without 

 checking his pace. 



The reindeer moss (Cenomyce rangiferina), without which these 

 animals cannot thrive, and which seems to form almost their only food, 

 is of a pale greenish yellow, and resembles a dry lichen rather than a 

 moss. At first sight it appears a most miserable, uninviting, and 

 wretched fare ; but on plucking it up, you discover that it is of a suc- 

 culent spongy nature, and the under part, which is not exposed to 

 the sun and wind, retains a great deal of moisture, and is highly nu- 

 tritious. I never saw a plant more deceptive. Often and often, when 

 halting for the mid-day meal, or the siesta, which my Norwegian com- 

 panion would never omit, have I been tempted by its dry, soft exte- 

 rior, to throw' myself on a bed of this moss, and as regularly have I 

 arisen from it wet to the skin, as if I had been lying in a marsh : nei- 

 ther did the experience bought by such discomfiture avail to warn me 

 from making the attempt again and again, so inviting does this moss 

 look, and so much does its dry appearance belie the reality of its 

 nature. 



I have said that the three deer which we came upon in the morn- 

 ing were fine old bucks ; it was about six o'clock, A. M., when we met 

 with them ; from that time we had walked all day, looking about us 

 in every direction, never being aware of the exact spot, within thirty 

 or forty miles, where the Laps had encamped (as they move their 

 position every week or ten days, according as the locality has an 

 abundant or scanty supply of reindeer moss), and I was beginning to 

 despair of falling in with any more of the deer, when towards evening, 

 as we descended a mountain, the guide called my attention to some 

 black spots in a large patch of snow at about two English miles dis- 

 tance. I could hardly believe him when he told me they were the 

 herd of tame reindeer of which we were in search. We went towards 

 them, and sure enough, as we came nearer, it was clear he was right. 

 It was not the main body, but fifty head of does and calves : they 

 were very much tamer than the bucks we had seen in the morning, 

 and allowed us to come very near them, within three or four yards. 



IX S 



