134 



MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE. 



| -Jeer. 



and Captain Franklin observes that the American 

 rein-deer "are accustomed to gnaw their fallen 

 antlers, and to devour mice." We cannot account 

 for such an anomaly in the habits of a ruminating 

 animal, otherwise than by attributing it to a morbid 

 appetite. To the natives of Finmark, Lapland, and 

 the shores of the Arctic Sea, the rein-deer is in every 

 sense important : not only is it a beast of burden, 

 but its flesh and milk are alike in requisition. In 

 these countries 



" Their rein-deer form their riches ; these their tents, 

 Their robes, their beds, and all their homely wealth 

 Supply— their wholesome fare, and cheerful cups ; 

 Obsequious to their call, the docile tribe 

 Yield to the sled their necks, and whirl them swift 

 O'er hill and dale," 



M. de Broke says, " The number of deer belong- 

 ing to a herd is from three hundred to five hundred ; 

 with these a Laplander can do well, and live in 

 tolerable comfort. He can make in summer a suf- 

 ficient quantity of cheese for the year's con- 

 sumption, and during the winter season can afford 

 to kill deer enough to supply him and his family 

 pretty constantly with venison. With two hundred 

 deer, a man, if his family be but small, can manage 

 to get on. If he have but one hundred, his subsist- 

 ence is very precarious, and he cannot rely entirely 

 upon them for support. Should he have but fifty, 

 he is no longer independent, or able to keep a sepa- 

 rate establishment, but generally joins his small 

 herd with that of some richer Laplander, being then 

 considered more in the light of a menial, under- 

 taking the laborious office of attending upon and 

 watching the herd, bringing them home to be milked, 

 and other similar offices, in return for the subsistence 

 afforded him." 



Von Buch, a celebrated traveller, has well des- 

 cribed the evening mil king-time, of which a repre- 

 sentation is given in Fig. 587. It is a Laplander's 

 summer encampment on the mountains. 



Early in September the herds and their owners 

 commence their return from the coast in order to 

 reach their winter-quarters before the fall of the 

 snows ; and it is when the winter is fairly set in that 

 the peculiar value of the rein-deer is felt by the 

 Laplander, and his powers called into operation. 

 Without him communication would be almost utterly 

 suspended. Harnassed to a sledge (Fig. 591) the 

 rein-deer will draw about 300 lbs. ; but the Lap- 

 landers generally limit the burden to 240 lbs. The 

 trot of the rein-deer is about ten miles an hour ; and 

 the animal's power of endurance is such, that jour- 

 neys of one hundred and fifty miles in nineteen 

 hours are -not uncommon. There is a portrait of a 

 rein-deer in the palace of Drotningholm (Sweden), 

 which is represented, upon an occasion of emer- 

 gency, to have drawn an officer with important 

 despatches, the incredible distance of eight hundred 

 English miles in forty-eight hours. This event is 

 stated to have happened in 1699, and the tradition 

 adds, that the deer dropped clown lifeless upon his 

 arrival. 



In America the rein-deer appears to be as migra- 

 tory as its Old World relative. Dr. Richardson 

 describes two varieties of this animal inhabiting the 

 northern regions of that continent ; the one under 

 the name of the Woodland Caribou (Var. sylvestris) ; 

 the other under that of the Barren-ground Caribou 

 (Var. Arctica). 



The Woodland Caribou (Caribou, of Theodat, La 

 Hontan, Charlevoix, &c. ; Rein-deer, of Drase, 

 Dobbs, &c. ; Attekh of the Cree Indians; Tant- 

 seeah of the Copper Indians, Richardson). — This 

 variety is much larger than the Barren-ground 

 Caribou, but inferior as an article of food. Its proper 

 country is a stripe of low primitive rocks well 

 clothed with wood, about 100 miles wide, and ex- 

 tending, at the distance of 80 or 100 miles from the 

 shores of the Hudson's Bay, from Lake Athapescow 

 to Lake Superior. " Contrary to the practice of the 

 Barren-ground Caribou, the Woodland variety 

 travels to the southward in the spring. They cross 

 the Nelson and Severn rivers in immense herds in 

 the month of May, pass the summer on the low and 

 marshy shores of .James's Bay, and return to the 

 northward and at the same time retire more inland 

 in the month of September." The weight of the 

 Woodland Caribou varies from 200 to 240 lbs. 



The Barren-ground Caribou (Common Deer of 

 Hearne ; Bedsee-awseh of the Copper Indians and 

 Dog-ribs ; Bedsee-choh (male), Tsootai (female), 

 Tampeh (female with a fawn) of the same ; Took- 

 too of the Esquimaux, Took-took dual, Took-toot 

 plural (Richardson) ; Tukta of the Greenlanders 

 (Pangnek male ; Kollowak, female ; Norak, young, 

 Fabrieius).— This variety (species?) is of small sta- 

 ture, the buck weighing, exclusive of the offal, from 

 90 to 130 lbs., according to the animal's condition. 

 The herds of the Barren-ground Caribou spend the 

 summer on the coast of the Arctic Sea, and in 

 winter retire to the woods between the sixty-third 

 and sixty-sixth degrees of latitude, where they feed 

 on the Usneae, Alectariaa, and other arboreal lichens, 

 as well as on the long grass of the swamps. About 



the end of April they make short excursions from 

 the woods, in order to obtain the terrestrial lichens 

 (Cetrariae,Cornicu]aria?, and Cenomyces), which, now 

 that, the snows are partially melted, are both soft and 

 easily to be collected. "In May the females pro- 

 ceed to the sea-coast, and towards the end of June 

 the males are in full march in the same, direction. 

 At this period the sun has dried up the lichens on 

 the Barren-grounds, and the Caribou frequents the 

 moist pastures which cover the bottoms of the nar- 

 row valleys on the coast and islands of the Arctic 

 Sea, where they graze on the sprouting carices, and 

 on the withered grass or hay of the preceding year, 

 which at that period is still standing and retaining 

 part of its sap. The spring journey is performed 

 partly on the snow, and partly, after the snow has 

 disappeared, on the ice covering the rivers and lakes, 

 which have in general a northerly direction." Soon 

 after their arrival on the coast, the females produce 

 their young. In September the herds begin their re- 

 turn southwards to the forests, which they reach 

 towards the end of October ; and are then joined by 

 the males. This retrograde journey is performed after 

 the snows have fallen, but before the heavy frost has 

 set in, so that they are able to procure the lichens, 

 which are still tender and pulpy, by scratching up 

 the snow with their feet, which are well adapted by 

 the concavity of their rounded sharp-edged hoofs for 

 this important purpose. Figs 595 and 596 are copies 

 of drawings, by Captain Back, of the horns of two 

 old Buck Caribous, killed on the Barren-grounds in 

 the neighbourhood of Fort Enterprise. They are 

 distinguished by their palmations. Dr. Richardson 

 states that he can confidently assert, after ha 1 ta| 

 seen many thousands of the Barren-ground Canb ,< 

 " that the horns of the old males are as my i ' 

 more palmated than any antlers of die Europe:. 

 rein-deer to be found in the British in - 

 which is contrary to Colonel Smith's opinion ina 

 the horns of the Caribou are shorter, less eonclav*, 

 more robust, with a narrower palm, and fewer pro- 

 cesses than those of the Lapland rein-deer. So nunn- 

 rous, however, are the varieties of form which tte 

 horns of the rein-deer assume, that little stress cai 

 be laid upon them as affording distinguishing cha- 

 racters. 



It is not only the flesh of the Caribou that is sougit 

 after by the Indians, its skin is of great value. 



Dr. Richardson informs us, that the skin of tie 

 Caribou dressed with the hair on it is so impervicis 

 to cold, that if clothed in a suit of this material, aid 

 wrapped in a mantle of the same, a person nay 

 bivouac ah night in the snow with safety during Hie 

 intensity of the Arctic winter. So closely indeed ire 

 the hairs set, that it is impossible, by sepaiatng 

 them, to discern the skin from which they arise. To 

 the tribes of the polar circle clothing of such imte- 

 rial is inestimable. 



The flesh, when in high condition, has several 

 inches of fat on the haunches, and is equal to the 

 best fallow-deer venison. The tongue is hichly 

 esteemed. A preparation called Pemmican is nade 

 by pouring one-third of melted fat over the poinded 

 meat, and incorporating them well together. The 

 Esquimaux and Greenlanders consider the painch 

 with its contents of lichen a great delicacy ; aid in 

 Boothia, as Captain James Ross affirms, these con- 

 tents form the only vegetable food which themtives 

 ever taste. 



3. Dama.— Antlers merging into broad dictated 

 palmations. 



597, 598, 599.— The Fallow-Deer. 



This well-known ornament of our parks is the Hydd 

 (Buck), Hyddes (Doe), Elain (Fawn), of thelncient 

 British; Le Daim (Buck), La Daime (Doe, Faon 

 (Fawn), of the French ; Daino (Buck), Damma 

 (Doe),Cerbietto, Cerbietta (Fawn), of the Ialians ; 

 Gama, Corza (Buck), Venadito (Fawn), of the 

 Spanish ; Corza (Buck), Veado (Fawn), of be Por- 

 tuguese ; Damhirsh of the Germans; Ibf, Dot 

 Hjort, of the Swedes; Daae, Dijr, of the Danes; 

 Dama vulgaris of Gesner : Cervus palnatus of 

 Klein ; Cervus platyceros of Ray ; an( Cervus 

 Dama of Linnaeus. 



Desmarest, who regards the Fallow-d<er as the 

 Platyceros of Pliny, and the 'Ekap; ihua$*u of 

 Oppian (as did also'Pennant), observes thtt it is less 

 extensively spread in Europe than the stag* it does 

 not exist in Russia, but it would seem ihat it in- 

 habits Lithuania, Moldavia, and Greece, the north 

 of Persia and China, and also Abyssinia ; it is abun- 

 dant in England, but of rarer oecurrenct in France 

 and Germanv. 



Cuvier, who remarks that the fallovdeer has 

 become common in all the countries of Europe, 

 adds, "but it appears to be originally a native of 

 Barbary." And he subjoins in a note, tl&t " since 

 the publication of his last edition of the 'Ossemens 

 Fossiles,' he has received a wild fallow-deer killed in 

 the woods to the south of Tunis." We have our- 

 selves examined horns of the fallow-de|r brought 

 from the same territory. In Spain, according to 



Pennant, the breed is very large ; ar > •son to 



stare that, "in every country exce ' v own, 



these deer are in a state of nature, itued by 



man, but they are, and have been foi ie, con- 



fined in parks on the Continent, , are in 



England." We may observe that ngland, at 



one period, before parks were en .-. ,d (as is 



necessary in our day) the herds we ed with- 



in due bounds, the fallow-deer wai freedom, 



like the stag or roe ; they tenanfe at forest 



which in the time of Henry 11. strct u- northwards 

 from London, and which, as Fitz- itn says, was 

 the covert of stags, deer (damami • , and wild 

 bulls. Pennant informs us that the Id Welsh 

 laws a fallow-deer was valued at : of a cow, 



or, as some say, a he-goat. 



The fallow-deer is too well kr, ■ d describ- 



ing in detail. Its venison is 1 iu;x>:\or to that of 

 the stag or roe, and its h i<i are valuable. 



Except during the pairing fasotl) when the bucks 

 associate with the dfees, md during the winter, 

 when the troops raiscuously together, 



the males and fern:: eparate herds. 



The female Efoes ti^ht months with young, and 

 produces one, aoraetimeitwo, at a birth, concealing 

 them amo- : lern or dense underwood of 



the park , theystti wards associate with the herds 

 of doe . 



T'. ,uires a different name, in the lan- 



.ieiie,'' every year to the sixth. The 



r he is a fawn— the second, when the simple 



hor..-, appear, a pricket — the third, a sorrel— the 



i. a soare — the fifth a buck of the first head — 



sixth, a buck complete. In Shakspere's play 



Love's Labour's Lost,' the " extern porai epitaph 



on Hie death of the deer," in which Holofernes 



" something affects the letter," and in which three 



of the above terms are employed, is familiar to all. 



During the pairing season, which takes place at the 



end of summer or in autumn, the males utter a 



deep tremulous cry, and engage with each other in 



obstinate battles, which are continued day after 



day, till the mastery is completely established. We 



do not. however believe that at this season they 



are dangerous to persons approaching them ; the 



stag has been known to make a furious attack, but 



we never heard of similar instances with respect to 



the fallow-deer. 



The fallow-deer may be easily rendered tame and 

 familiar, as we ourselves have often seen. It is 

 said, when thus tamed and brought up in the 

 stable-yard, to delight in the company of the horse ; 

 and in proof thereof, it may be observed, that at 

 Newmarket (1828) there was a deer which was ac- 

 customed regularly to exercise with the racehorses, 

 and the creature delighted to gallop round the 

 course with them in their morning training. Fig. 

 598 represents the morning gallop of the associated 

 deer and horses. 



The fossil elk of Ireland (Cervus megaceros; 

 C. gisranteus, Goldf.). To the Platycerine or Dama 

 group appears to belong that noble species com- 

 monly called the fossil elk of Ireland, from its abun- 

 dance in that country, where its remains occur in 

 bogs and marl-pits, and that so abundantly, that 

 they have ceased to be regarded as objects of cu- 

 riosity. The huge antlers, indeed, have been used 

 as gates, as stop-gaps in the fields, and for similar 

 purposes. Though most frequent in Ireland, the 

 bones of this species are also found in similar de- 

 posits in the Isle of Man, as well as in England; 

 and have been dug up in France, Germany, and 

 Italy, where, according to Cuvier they occur "in the 

 same strata with bones of elephants. Ireland was 

 perhaps the last stronghold of the species, which 

 appears to have once thronged that island. It is 

 very seldom, however, that an entire skeleton has 

 been discovered, the remains consisting for the 

 most part of skulls, with the horns attached, and 

 various separate bones disposed without any order. 

 They generally occur in a deposit of she'll-marl, 

 covered by a layer of peat, and resting on clay. In 

 this situation, one of the few entire skeletons dis- 

 covered is stated to have occurred. " Most of the 

 bones," says Archdeacon Maunsell, "and heads, 

 eight in number, were found in the marl ; many of 

 them, however, appeared to rest on the clay., and 

 to be merely covered with the marl." It is worthy 

 of remark, that the fossil remains of no other ani- 

 mals are mingled with them. Of the skeleton to 

 which we have alluded, and which graces the mu- 

 seum of the Royal Dublin Society, Mr. Hart drew 

 up a Memoir. "This magnificent skeleton," he 

 observes, "is perfect in every single bone of the 

 framework which contributes to form a part of its 

 general outline ; the spine, the chest, the pelvis, 

 and the extremities are all complete in this respect ; 

 and when surmounted by the head and bep.uti fully 

 expanded antlers, which extend out to a distance of 

 nearly six feet on either side, forms a splendid dis- 

 play of the reliques of the former grandeur of the 

 animal kingdom, and carries back the imagination 

 to a period when whole herds of this noble anim&i 



