58 
REIN DEER. 
that we are assured a rein deer may be heard as far 
as it can be seen. 
The female is provided with horns; but they are 
smaller, and have fewer branches than those of the 
male. They bring forth two at a time. 
The rein deer is only to be found in very high 
latitudes, and abounds most in those icy regions 
where 
“ Earth’s universal face, deep hid and chill. 
Is one wild dazzling waste, that buries wide 
The works of Man.” 
Large herds of them are to be met with within 
the Arctic circle, from the country of the Samoieds, 
as far as Kamtschatka, and in the inhospitable 
island of Spitzbergen. They are not, however, 
confined within the polar regions, but are spread 
about Hudson’s Bay, Labrador, and the northern 
parts of Canada; a single instance is recorded of 
one having wandered as far as Quebec. It may 
be readily supposed, that an animal formed to en- 
dure the extreme severity of these climates, will be 
but badly calculated to bear any degree of warmth: 
this indeed is the case : nevertheless the rein deer 
is obliged to submit to the scorching rays of a Lap- 
land sun, which shines, in the most northern parts, 
for two months of the year without intermission. 
During this time these poor animals suffer the 
greatest torment: the sun’s heat brings to life in- 
numerable swarms of insects, that not only cover 
the weedy lakes with which this country abounds 
