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The horns of the Rein-deer are large and slender, bending forward, with brow antlers, which are broad and palmated. A pair in our possession are in length two feet eight inches, and from tip to tip two feet five; they weigh nine pounds: the projecting brow antler is fourteen inches long, one foot broad, and serrated at the end it should seem, both from its situation and form, an excellent instrument to remove the snow, under which their favourite moss lies. Both sexes have horns: those of the female are less, and have fewer branches.

We are happy in being able to give an accurate representation of this singular creature. The drawing was taken from one in the possession of Sir H. G. Liddell, Bart. which he brought over from Lapland, with four others, in 1786. The height at the shoulder was three feet three inches. The hair on the body was of a dark brown colour; and on the neck brown, mixed with white a large tuft of hair, of a dirty white colour, hung down from the throat, near its breast; and it had a large white spot on the inside of each hind leg, close by the joint its head was long and fine; and round each eye was a large black space: its horns were covered with a fine down, like velvet. The hoofs of this animal are large, broad, and deeply cloven: they spread out to a great breadth on the ground; and when the animal is in motion, make a crackling noise, by being drawn up forcibly together.

Not many attempts have been made to draw the Reindeer from its native mountains, and transport it to milder climes; and of these, few have succeeded. Naturalists from thence have concluded, that it cannot exist but amidst ice and snow. M. Buffon regrets the impossibi

lity of procuring the animal alive; and says, that when transported to another climate, it soon dies. M. Regnard mentions some that were brought to Dantzick; where, being unable to endure the heat of the climate, they all perished. Queen Christina of Sweden procured five and twenty, which she purposed sending to Oliver Cromwell : they were brought as far as Stockholm; but the Laplanders who attended them refusing to come to England, fifteen of the number were killed by the wolves, and the remaining ten did not long survive, the climate being considered as too warm.

To those brought over by Sir H. G. Liddell, five more were added the year following. They produced young ones, and gave promising hopes of thriving in this country: but, unfortunately, some of them were killed; and the others died, in consequence of a disorder similar to that called the rot in Sheep, which was attributed to the richness of the grass whereon they fed. Nor can we wonder at the failure of this spirited enterprize, when we consider, that it is the sole employment of the Laplander to tend and herd his Rein-deer, to drive them in the summer time to the summits of the mountains, to the sides of clear lakes and streams, and to lead them where they can find the most proper food. Want of knowledge or attention to minute particulars, is sufficient to overturn the best-laid plans.

There is, however, little doubt but this animal will live without the Lapland lichen; to which, perhaps, it only hath recourse, because there is in those latitudes no other sustenance during the winter. It is also, in England, free from its mortal enemy-the gadfly. But as the desire of possessing this animal has hitherto been ex

cited only by curiosity, it is not likely that much attention will be paid to it in a country like this, abounding with such variety of useful quadrupeds.

The Rein-deer is wild in America, where it is called the Caribou. It is found in Spitzbergen and Greenland, and is very common in the most northern parts of Europe, and in Asia as far as Kamschatka, where some of the richest of the natives keep herds of ten or twenty thousand in number.

In the neighbourhood of Hudson's Bay there are great herds of wild Rein-deer: columns of many thousands annually pass from North to South in the months of March and April. In that season the muskatoes are very troublesome, and oblige them to quit the woods, and seek refreshment on the shore and open country. Great numbers of beasts of prey follow the herds. The wolves single out the stragglers, detach them from the flock, and hunt them down: the Foxes attend at a distance, to pick up the offals left by the former. In autumn, the Deer, with the Fawns bred during the summer, remigrate northward.

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(Cervus Elephas, Lin.-Le Cerf, Buff.)

THIS is the most beautiful animal of the Deer kind. The elegance of his form, the lightness of his motions, the flexibility of his limbs, his bold, branching horns, which are annually renewed, his grandeur, strength, and swiftness, give him a decided pre-eminence over every

other inhabitant of the forest.

The age of the Stag is known by its horns. The first

year exhibits only a short protuberance, which is covered with a hairy skin; the next year the horns are straight and single; the third year produces two antlers, the fourth three, the fifth four; and, when arrived at the sixth the antlers amount to six or seven on each year, side; but the number is not always certain.

The Stag begins to shed his horns the latter end of February, or the beginning of March. Soon after the old horn has fallen off, a soft tumour begins to appear, which is soon covered with a down like velvet: this tumour every day buds forth, like the graft of a tree; and, rising by degrees, shoots out the antlers on each side: the skin continues to cover it for some time, and is furnished with blood-vessels, which supply the growing horns with nourishment, and occasion the furrows observable in them when that covering is stript off: the impression is deeper at the bottom, where the vessels are larger, and diminishes towards the point, where they are smooth. When the horns are at their full growth, they acquire strength and solidity; and the velvet covering or skin, with its blood-vessels, dries up, and begins to fall off; which the animal endeavours to hasten, by rubbing them against the trees; and, in this manner, the whole head gradually acquires its complete hardness, expansion, and beauty.

Soon after the Stags have polished their horns, which is not completed till July or August, they quit the thickets, and return to the forests: they cry with a loud and tremulous note, and fly from place to place, in search of the females, with extreme ardour: their necks swell; they strike with their horns against trees and other obstacles, and become extremely furious. At

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