red. Not a few are destroyed annually by
wolves and bears, notwithstanding the usual precautions against such
casualties, while in very severe winters numbers are sure to die of
starvation. They live almost entirely on the so-called reindeer moss;
but this failing them, they eat the young twigs of the trees. When
the snow covers the ground to a depth of not more than three or four
feet, these intelligent creatures dig holes in order to reach the
moss, and guided by some strong instinct they rarely fail to do so in
just the right place. The Lapps themselves would be entirely at a
loss for any indication where to seek the animal's food when it is
covered by the deep snow.

What the camel is to the Arab of the desert, the reindeer is to the
Laplander. Though found here in a wild state, they are not common,
and are very shy sometimes occupying partially inaccessible islands
near the main-land, swimming back and forth as necessity may demand.
The domestic deer is smaller than those that remain in a state of
nature, and is said to live only half as long. When properly broken
to harness, they carry lashed to their backs a hundred and thirty
pounds, or drag upon the snow, when harnessed to a sledge, two
hundred and fifty pounds, travelling ten miles an hour, for several
consecutive hours, without apparent fatigue. Some of the thread
prepared by the Lapp women from the sinews of the reindeer was shown
to us, being as fine as the best sewing-silk, and much stronger than
any silk thread made by modern methods.

These diminutive people are not so poorly off as one would at first
sight think them to be. The climate in which they live, though
terrible to us, is not so to them. They have their games, sports,
and festive hours. If their hardships were very trying they would not
be so proverbially long-lived. Though an ill-formed race, they are
yet rugged, hardy, and self-reliant. Their limbs are crooked and out
of proportion to their bodies; one looks in vain for a well-shaped or
perfect figure among them, and indeed it may be safely doubted
whether a straight-limbed Lapp exists. They are one and all
bow-legged. The country over which these people roam is included
within northern Norway, Sweden, Russia, and Finland, say extending
over seven thousand square miles; but the whole race will hardly
number thirty thousand in the aggregate. Lapland in general terms may
be said to be the region lying between the Polar Ocean and the Arctic
C