t a visitor of the coasts
of these islands seeing a seal or a walrus, a reindeer or a Polar
bear. In order to present a true picture of the Polar traveller's
surroundings and mode of life, it is absolutely necessary to give a
sketch of the occurrence and mode of life of the wild mammalia in
the Polar lands.

I shall make a beginning with the reindeer. This graminivorous
animal goes nearly as far to the north as the land in the old world.
It was not, indeed, observed by Payer on Franz Josef Land, but
traces of the reindeer were seen by us on the clay beds at Cape
Chelyuskin; remnants of reindeer were observed at Barents' winter
harbour on the northernmost part of Novaya Zemlya; some very fat
animals were killed by Norwegian walrus-hunters on King Karl's Land
east of Spitzbergen, and for some years back the reindeer was very
numerous even on the north coast of North East Land, and on
Castren's, Parry's, Marten's, and Phipps' Islands, lying still
farther to the north. Although these regions are situated between
80 deg. and 81 deg. N.L., the reindeer evidently thrives there very
well, and finds, even in winter, abundant food on the mountain
slopes swept clear of snow by storms, as is shown by the good
condition in which several of the animals shot by us were, and by
the numerous reindeer traces and tracks which we saw on Castren's
Island in the month of May, 1873. Nor does a winter temperature of
-40 deg. to -50 deg. appear to agree particularly ill with these
relatives of the deer of the south. Even the Norwegian reindeer can
bear the climate of Spitzbergen, for some of the selected draught
reindeer which I took with me to Spitzbergen in 1872, and which made
their escape soon after they were landed, were shot by hunters in
1875. They then pastured in company with wild reindeer, and were,
like them, very fat. It is remarkable that the reindeer,
notwithstanding the devastating pursuit to which it is exposed on
Spitzbergen,[66] is found there in much larger numbers than on North
Novaya Zemlya or the Taimur peninsula, where it is almost protected
from the attacks of the hunter. Even on the low-lying part of South
Novaya Zemlya, the reindeer, notwithstanding the abundance of the
summer pasture, is so rare that, when one lands there, any
reindeer-hunting is scarcely to be counted on. It first occurs in
any considerable numbers farther to the north, on both sides of
Matotschkin Schar.

It deserves to be mentioned here that th