VERTEBRATA. 
4^ 
MILKING THE KEINDEEB. 
The wild reindeer exists in Norway, Sweden, Lapland, and also in the islands of Spitzbergen and 
Nova Zembla. In summer they seek the high mountain lands, which are often covered with 
snow even in summer, chiefly to avoid the gnats which torment them ; in winter they descend to 
the lower country. At this season they live chiefly on a kind of white moss which hangs in fes- 
toons from the trees, though they also eat the twigs of trees. These animals unite in herds to mi- 
grate. Many are killed by hunters in autumji, when they are fat. Sometimes the flesh is pre- 
served by salting, and sometimes by drying and smoking. The Laplander, whose country is too 
cold and barren for cultivation, except 
to a very limited extent, has domestica- 
ted this anunal, and it is as necessary to 
him as the camel is to the Arab of the 
desert. Indeed, Lapland would be un- 
inhabitable but for the reindeer. The 
wealth of the people of this country is 
computed from the number of their 
herds. Some of them possess more 
than a thousand, many several hundreds. 
In the summer these animals are pas- 
tured in the mountains, where they feed 
upon ordinary herbage ; at the approach 
of winter they are driven down into the 
plains, and their food at this season con- 
sists principally of moss, which they dig 
np from beneath the snow by means of 
their hoofs, and often by rooting for it 
like hogs. When going on a journey, 
the Laplanders take a supply of this 
lichen with them, and four pounds of it 
are said to be sufiicient for a day ; in 
some cases, however, the animals will 
travel for two or three days without food, 
without seeming to feel the want of it. 
The main necessities as well as com- 
forts of life are supplied to the Laplander 
by his reindeer. The flesh of the ani- 
mal is the most substantial part of his 
food, and its milk serves him in various 
ways. It is drunk; it is coagulated into 
cheese; the whey is used for drink, and 
in some instances fermented and dis- 
tilled into a liquor analogous to that 
which the Tartars make from the milk 
of the mare. The skin of the reindeer, 
which is warm, strong, and pliant, serves 
for clothing, for blankets, for covering 
the sledge, and for almost every purpose 
to which we apply cloth or leather. 
The tendons, w^hich are very tough, fur- 
nish thread; the horns are manufac- 
tured into a vai'iety of domestic uten- 
sils; and even the intestines of the ani- 
mal have their domestic uses, while the 
LAPLANDERS TRivELiN'o ^ EEiNDEER SLEDGES. tongucs, whlch arc cousidcred luxuries 
LAPL.tNUEaS MIGKATIKG. 
