hey are totally unacquainted with the use of corn, and know not
how to make bread; they have no trees which bear fruit, and scarcely any
of the herbs which grow in our gardens in England; nor do they possess
either sheep, goats, hogs, cows, or beasts.

_Tommy._--That must be a disagreeable country indeed! What then have
they to live upon?

_Harry._--They have a species of deer, which is bigger than the largest
stags which you may have seen in the gentlemen's parks in England, and
very strong. These animals are called _reindeer_, and are of so gentle a
nature that they are easily tamed, and taught to live together in herds,
and to obey their masters. In the short summer which they enjoy, the
Laplanders lead them out to pasture in the valleys, where the grass
grows very high and luxuriant. In the winter, when the ground is all
covered over with snow, the deer have learned to scratch away the snow,
and find a sort of moss which grows underneath it, and upon this they
subsist. These creatures afford not only food, but raiment, and even
houses to their masters. In the summer, the Laplander milks his herds
and lives upon the produce; sometimes he lays by the milk in wooden
vessels, to serve him for food in winter. This is soon frozen so hard
that, when they would use it, they are obliged to cut it in pieces with
a hatchet. Sometimes the winters are so severe that the poor deer can
scarcely find even moss, and then the master is obliged to kill part of
them and live upon the flesh. Of the skins he makes warm garments for
himself and his family, and strews them thick upon the ground, to sleep
upon. Their houses are only poles stuck slanting into the ground, and
almost joined at top, except a little hole which they leave to let out
the smoke. These poles are either covered with the skins of animals, or
coarse cloth, or sometimes with turf and the bark of trees. There is a
little hole left in one side, through which the family creep into their
tent, and they make a comfortable fire to warm them, in the middle.
People that are so easily contented are totally ignorant of most of the
things that are thought so necessary here. The Laplanders have neither
gold, nor silver, nor carpets, nor carved work in their houses; every
man makes for himself all that the real wants of life require, and with
his own hands performs everything which is necessary to be done. Their
food consists either in frozen milk, or the flesh of the reindeer, or