To persons unaccustomed to the habits of the Laplanders and their animals, it will appear wonderful that they should be able to travel during the winter, by night as well as by day, the earth presenting one uniform surface of snow, and not a single vestige of human industry and labour being discernible to direct their course; the snow, at the same time, flying about in all directions, and almost blinding them. Yet it is certain that they are under no difficulty in finding the spot to which they are bound; and dangerous as these journeys may seem, they rarely experience any accident. When several persons are travelling in company, they fix bells to the harness of the animals, that the whole may be kept together by hearing when they cannot see each other, after the light of their short day has failed them. To guide them in their course, the Laplanders observe, in the day-time, the quarter whence the wind blows, and, at night, they are directed by the position of the stars. The missionary Leems, who resided ten years amongst the Laplanders, remarks that, during the whole of that time, he did not remember more than one fatal accident to have occurred from this mode of travelling.
As the rein-deer supplies, to the Laplanders, the place of a horse for conveyance and carriage, so it is an invaluable substitute for the cow in affording them food. The females supply them with milk, each yielding about as much as a common she-goat. This, though not so thick as the milk of the cow, is said to be sweeter and more nutritive: and produces them both butter and cheese. The mountain Laplander subsists, through the whole winter, upon these, or upon flesh of the rein-deer, slaughtering two or three every week, according to the number of his family. The animals are killed by stabbing them in the neck, and the wound is so dexterously inflicted that no blood flows from it; but this is found in the inside, whence it is carefully taken out, and prepared for use. The fat of the rein-deer serves also for food.
Of the skin, after it has been properly prepared, the Laplanders make garments, gloves, shoes, and caps, which cover them from head to foot, and protect them against the cold. These skins also serve as interior coverings for tents, as linings and coverings for sledges, and as beds. They are more or less valuable, according to the season in which the animals have been killed. If slain in the spring, the hides are found to be perforated, in various parts, by a species of insect which lays its eggs in them; but if the deer be killed in winter the skin is free from these defects. The Laplander, however, desirous of obtaining the same price for a defective skin as for a perfect one, frequently attempts to defraud the purchaser by artfully closing up the holes in such manner as to render them scarcely visible.
The horns are converted into handles for different kinds of instruments, and an excellent glue is made of them. The bones are likewise of use; and the sinews or tendons of the legs, after having been held before the fire and beaten with wooden hammers, are divided into filaments as fine as hair, which answer all the purposes of thread; and these filaments twisted together, serve for bowstrings and cords of different kinds.
So numerous and important are the uses of the rein-deer in Lapland, that there are few inhabitants of that country who do not possess them; and some of the wealthiest Laplanders have herds consisting of more than 1000 head. In the summer-time these feed on divers plants which flourish during that season; but, in winter, they either browze on the rein-deer liverwort (Lichen rangiferinus), which they dig up from beneath the snow with their feet and horns; or on another kind of liverwort, which hangs on the branches of fir-trees, and which affords them sustenance when the snows are too deep or too hard frozen to allow them to reach that.
Wild rein-deer live in the mountains and woods, and the hunting of them is, in general, attended with excessive fatigue; as they are endowed with astonishing muscular powers, and also possess a nicety and acuteness of precaution which can scarcely be equalled. Some idea may be formed of the difficulty of this pursuit, when it is stated that a Laplander, in chase of one of these animals, has been known to creep on his hands and knees through shrubs and moss, for nearly five miles, before he could approach within gun-shot of his prey. The various modes in which rein-deer are pursued, are too numerous and too intricate to require a detail in this place. It may be sufficient to say that they are assailed by dogs, traps, pitfalls, snares, cross-bows, and fire-arms, in all the ways which the inventive art of man can devise.
83. The STAG, or RED DEER (Cervus elaphus, Fig. 9), is a large species of deer, generally of reddish brown colour on the upper parts of the body, and white beneath; with large and much branched horns, rounded through their whole length.
The males only are horned. The males is called stag, or hart, the female hind, and the young one has the name of fawn.
Red deer are found in the mountainous parts of Scotland; in the forest of Martindale, Cumberland; in the New Forest, Hampshire; in the woods on the river Tamar, in Devonshire; and amongst the mountains of Kerry in Ireland. On the Continent of Europe and in several parts of Asia and North America, they are very common.
The hunting of these animals was formerly considered one of the most important occupations of the English nobility, and, during the Saxton Heptarchy, it was the privileged pursuit of the sovereign and his court. By the kings of the Norman line laws of the most sanguinary description were enacted for the preservation of these the royal game, it being then deemed less criminal to destroy an individual of the human species than a beast of chase. Forests were enlarged for the shelter of wild animals, and for the more ample enjoyment of the diversion of hunting, at the expense of every principle of justice and humanity. Happily for us, the scenes of devastation which this pursuit occasioned have long ceased to exist; and those vast tracts of country which were once dedicated to hunting, are now, for the most part, applied to the advantages and comfort of man.