REIN DEER. 
61 
nor the length of the nights, neither the wildness of 
the forest, nor the vagrant disposition of the herd, 
interrupt the even tenour of the Laplander’s life. 
By night and day he is seen attending his favourite 
cattle, and remains unaffected in a season which 
would be speedy death to those bred up in a milder 
climate. He gives himself no uneasiness to house 
his herds, or to provide a winter subsistence for 
them ; he is at the trouble neither of manuring his 
grounds, nor bringing in his harvests ; he is not the 
hireling of another’s luxury ; all his labours are to 
obviate the necessities of his own situation ; and 
these he undergoes with cheerfulness, as he is sure 
to enjoy the fruits of his own industry. If, there- 
fore, we compare the Laplander with the peasant 
of more northern climates, we shall have little rea- 
son to pity his situation ; the climate is rather ter- 
rible to us than to him ; and as for the rest, he is 
blessed with liberty, plenty, and ease. The rein 
deer alone supplies him with all the wants of life, 
and some of the conveniences; serving to show how 
many advantages nature is capable of supplying, 
when necessity gives the call. Thus, the poor, 
little, helpless native, who was originally, perhaps, 
driven by fear or famine into those inhospitable 
climates, would seem, at first view, to be the most 
wretched of mankind: but it is far otherwise ; he 
looks round among the few wild animals that his 
barren country can maintain, and singles out one 
from among them, and that of a species which the 
rest of mankind have not thought worth taking 
