ry strange ahead. An
exclamation escaped from me. I stopped. I thought I saw the ground
covered with hares. I could see them moving. "What are such great
numbers of hares doing here?" I said to myself. They moved in such a
strange manner; they seemed to jump, or rather leap. Suddenly I saw my
mistake. "These are not hares," I exclaimed; "but the tails of reindeer
just above the snow. That is all I see of their bodies. The rest is
hidden. They have dug the snow and are eating the moss, and their tails
are in motion." I had never seen such a sight before. It was a queer
landscape; over two thousand tails shaking above the snow at about the
same time. This herd also belonged to Pehr Wasara, who was smiling all
over when he saw how amazed I was at this sight.

[Illustration: "They were really working hard for their living."]

Then we continued our journey, and soon found ourselves in the midst of
hundreds and hundreds of reindeer of all sizes. They were just beginning
to dig the snow with their fore legs. How strange was the sight! As we
passed among them they were not in the least afraid of us. They were
left to themselves. There were no dogs with them, and no people to
watch.

Every reindeer was working as hard as he could, busily digging in the
snow. They were evidently hungry. I said to Pehr Wasara: "Let us stay
here a while; I want to watch the reindeer working." Pehr, who had been
accustomed to see reindeer all his life, wondered at my curiosity, which
seemed rather to amuse him. They dug with the right fore foot, then with
the left, rested at times, then worked again. It was hard work indeed,
but the holes got larger and larger. The bodies gradually disappeared in
the holes they made, and were partly hidden by the little mounds of snow
coming from these holes, until only the tails of many could be seen.
They had reached the moss of which they were so fond. They were really
working hard for their living.

Some of the female reindeer were working with a will, while the young
does were looking on, and when the moss had been reached the mothers
called the calves by a peculiar grunt and let them feed by their side.

After looking at the reindeer for a while, we continued our journey and
were completely lost in the midst of deep holes made by the thousands of
reindeer. Wherever we turned we discovered holes and mounds, until we
came to fresh furrows of sleighs and knew that these led to an
encampment. We had succeeded