Mrs. Ashley. How should you like to go to Lapland, and ride over the snow in a sledge drawn by rein deer?
Charles. By rein deer, ma’am? What, have deer strength enough to draw carriages?
Mrs. Ashley. The rein deer, my love, is a very extraordinary creature. It inhabits Lapland, and other cold countries, and answers to the inhabitants the purpose of most of the animals we have among us. It serves them instead of a horse, and draws their sledges with amazing swiftness over the frozen country. It supplies them too with milk and cheese, instead of the cow; and answers the purpose of our sheep, in furnishing them with warm covering.
Providence, who has thus formed the rein deer capable of supplying the numerous wants of man, has provided with wonderful care for its support. That dreary country, where no grass will grow, and not any herb which we are accustomed to see, is nevertheless covered all over with a species of white moss, which serves as food for it. This is its only pasture; and it gets at it in winter, by scratching away the snow with its hinder legs.
Arthur. Is the rein deer good to eat, pray, ma’am?
Mr. Ashley. It is. So, when it has lived about sixteen years, the Laplander generally kills him for the sake of his flesh and his skin.
CHAPTER XI.
The Pheasantry.
Mr. Ashley’s pleasure-grounds were very extensive; and in one corner of the park he had inclosed four or five acres of land for keeping rare and curious birds.