THE REIN-DEER. 
245 
and these again bear no comparison in size to those of 
Spitzbergen and the polar climes. 
The variations in colour are much less extensive. 
In summer their coat assumes a deeper hue than in 
winter; and the young animal has a still darker tinge 
than the adult. The general colour of the upper parts 
is of a dark brown, all the hairs being more or less 
deeply tipped with that colour, and of a grayish white 
at the base. As the winter approaches the brown 
assumes a grayish tinge ; the whole of the under parts 
retaining the same shade of grayish white throughout 
the year. The feet are almost uniformly marked imme- 
diately above the hoofs with a band of white. Occa- 
sionally the entire coat puts on this white appearance ; 
and spotted or mottled Deer are said to be by no means 
uncommon in some parts of Lapland, but are still more 
frequent in Siberia. The fur of the latter is of a finer 
quality than that of the other varieties. All travellers 
agree in stating that there is no kind of covering so 
fitted for the Arctic Regions, or so capable of resisting 
the most intense cold, as the skin of the Rein-deer. 
"The hairs composing their coat," says Mr. Brooke, 
" are indeed so thick, that it is hardly possible by 
separating them in any way to discern the least portion 
of the naked hide." This remark had previously been 
made by Linnseus ; and Dr. Richardson affirms that a 
suit of clothing made of deer-skin " is so impervious to 
the cold, that, with the addition of a blanket of the 
same material, any one so clothed may bivouack on the 
snow with safety, in the most intense cold of an arctic 
winter's night." The winter clothing of all the tribes 
inhabiting the arctic circle is consequently almost en- 
tirely composed of this inestimable fur. 
But the most extensive and the most important 
variations are those that occur in the horns. In the 
adult animal these appendages in their most perfect 
