36 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



short time, as it is soon able to seek and to find its food. The reindeer gives 

 very little milk — at the very utmost, after the young has been weaned, a bottle- 

 f ul daily ; but the quality is excellent, for it is uncommonly thick and nutritious. 

 It consists almost entirely of cream, so that a great deal of water can be added 

 before it becomes inferior to the best cow-milk. Its taste is excellent, but the 

 butter made from it is rancid, and hardly to be eaten, while the cheese is very 

 good. 



The only food of the reindeer during winter consists of moss, and the most 

 surprising circumstance in his history is the instinct, or the extraordinary olfac- 

 tory powers, whereby he is enabled to discover it when hidden beneath the 

 snow. However deep the Lichen rangiferinus may be buried, the animal is 

 aware of its presence the moment he comes to the spot, and this kind of food 

 is never so agreeable to him as when he digs for it himself. In his manner of 

 doing this he is remarkably adroit. Having first ascertained, by thrusting his 

 muzzle into the snow, whether the moss lies below or not, he begins making a 

 hole with his fore feet, and continues working until at length he uncovers the 

 lichen. No instance has ever occurred of a reindeer making such a cavity with- 

 out discovering the moss he seeks. In summer their food is of a different na- 

 ture ; they are then pastured upon green herbs or the leaves of trees. Judg- 

 ing from the lichen's appearance in the hot months, when it is dry and brittle, 

 one might easily wonder that so large a quadruped as the reindeer should 

 make it his favorite food and fatten upon it ; but toward the month of Septem- 

 ber the lichen becomes soft, tender, and damp, with a taste like wheat-bran. In 

 this state its luxuriant and flowery ramifications somewhat resemble the leaves 

 of endive, and are as white as snow. 



Though domesticated since time immemorial, the reindeer has only partly 

 been brought under the yoke of man, and wanders in large wild herds both in 

 the North American wastes, where it has never yet been reduced to servitude, 

 and in the forests and tundras of the Old World. 



In America, where it is called " caribou," it extends from Labrador to Mel- 

 ville Island and Washington Land ; in Europe and Asia it is found from Lap- 

 land and Norway, and from the mountains of Mongolia and the banks of the 

 Ufa, as far as Nova Zembla and Spitzbergen. Many centuries ago — probably 

 during the glacial period — its range was still more extensive, as reindeer bones 

 are frequently found in French and German caves, and bear testimony to the 

 severity of the climate which at that time reigned in Central Europe ; for the 

 reindeer is a cold-loving animal, and will not thrive under a milder sky. All 

 attempts to prolong its life in our zoological gardens have failed, and even in 

 the royal park at Stockholm Hogguer saw some of these animals, which were 

 quite languid and emaciated during the summer, although care had been 

 taken to provide them with a cool grotto to which they could retire during the 

 warmer hours of the day. In summer the reindeer can enjoy health only in the 

 fresh mountain air or along the bracing sea-shore, and has as great a longing for 

 a low temperature as man for the genial warmth of his fireside in winter. 



The reindeer is easily tamed, and soon gets accustomed to its master, whose 

 society it loves, attracted as it were by a kind of innate sympathy ; for, unlike 



