142 
THE REIN-DEER. 
slightly touching the deer with his thong, the whole 
of them started off like lightning. 
“ The want of light rendered it difficult to distin- 
guish the direction which we were going in, and 
I therefore left it entirely to my deer to follow the 
rest of the herd, which he did with the greatest ra- 
pidity, whirling the pnlk behind him. 1 soon found 
how totally impossible it was to pre.serve the balance 
necessary to prevent its overturning, owing to the 
rate we were going at, and roughness of the surface 
in parts where the snow had drifted away, the pulk 
frequently making a sudden bound of some hundred 
yards, when the deer was proceeding tiown a smooth 
slippery declivity. In the space of the first two hun- 
dred yards I was prostrate in the snow several times, 
the pulk righting again by my suddenly throwing 
my weight on the opposite side. My attention was 
too deeply engrossed by my own situation, to ob- 
serve particularly that of my fellow-travellers, or to 
be able to assist them. The deer apjieared at first 
setting off, to be running away in all directions, and 
with their drivers alternately sprawling in the snow. 
As I passed Mr Heinchen’s deer at full speed, I ob- 
served, to my great wonder, the former turned com- 
pletely over in his pulk, without appearing to sus- 
tain any damage, or his deer at all to relax its pace. 
My turn was now arrived ; and as we were descend- 
ing a tiifling declivity, and about to enter the fir fo- 
rest, a sudden jerk threw the pulk so completely on 
its broadside, that I was unable to recover it, and I 
