THE REIN-DEER, (Cervus Tarandus, or Rangifer Tarandus,)
Is found in most of the northern regions of Europe, Asia, and America, and its general height is about four feet and a half. The colour is brown above and white beneath; but as the animal advances in age, it often becomes of a greyish white. The hoofs are long, large, and black. Both sexes are furnished with horns, but those of the male are much the largest. To the Laplanders this animal supplies the place of the horse, the cow, the goat, and the sheep; it is their only wealth. The milk affords them cheese; the flesh, food; the skin, clothing; of the tendons they make bowstrings, and when split, thread; of the horns, glue; and of the bones, spoons. During the winter, the Reindeer supplies the want of a horse, and draws sledges with amazing swiftness over the frozen lakes and rivers, or over the snow, which at that time covers the whole country. Innumerable are the uses, the comforts, and advantages which the poor inhabitants of this dreary climate derive from this animal. We cannot sum them up better than in the beautiful language of the poet:
“Their Rein-deer form their riches. These their tents,
Their robes, their beds, and all their homely wealth
Supply, their wholesome fare, and cheerful cups:
Obsequious at their call, the docile tribe
Yield to the sled their necks, and whirl them swift
O’er hill and dale, heaped into one expanse
Of marbled snow, as far as eye can sweep,
With a blue crest of ice unbounded glazed.”
The mode of hunting the wild Rein-deer by the Laplanders, the Esquimaux, and the Indians of North America, has been accurately described by late travellers. Captain Franklin gives the following interesting account of the mode practised by the Dog-rib Indians, to kill these animals. “The hunters go in pairs, the foremost man carrying in one hand the horns and part of the skin of the head of a Deer, and in the other a small bundle of twigs, against which he, from time to time, rubs the horns, imitating the gestures peculiar to the animal. His comrade follows, treading exactly in his footsteps, and holding the guns of both in a horizontal position, so that the muzzles project under the arms of him who carries the head. Both hunters have a fillet of white skin round their foreheads, and the foremost has a strip of the same round his wrists. They approach the herd by degrees, raising their legs very slowly, but setting them down somewhat suddenly, after the manner of a Deer, and always taking care to lift their right or left feet simultaneously. If any of the herd leave off feeding to gaze upon this extraordinary phenomenon, it instantly stops, and the head begins to play its part, by licking its shoulders, and performing other necessary movements. In this way the hunters attain the very centre of the herd without exciting suspicion, and have leisure to single out the fattest. The hindmost man then pushes forward his comrade’s gun, the head is dropped, and they both fire nearly at the same instant. The Deer scamper off, the hunters trot after them; in a short time the poor animals halt, to ascertain the cause of their terror; their foes stop at the same moment, and having loaded as they ran, greet the gazers with a second fatal discharge. The consternation of the Deer increases; they run to and fro in the utmost confusion; and sometimes a great part of the herd is destroyed within the space of a few hundred yards.”