ghs when encampments
are moved; they provide him with milk and cheese, and, when killed,
with excellent meat. Their skins keep him warm at night, and out of
them are made boots, shoes, and leggings, as well as every kind of
article of leather which the Lapp has a use for. Horns, hoofs, and
bones all have their value, and not so long ago the women did all
their sewing with needles and threads made out of reindeer's bones
and sinews. Moreover, after supplying their own wants, the herdsmen
can sell the surplus meat and skins, and thus obtain the wherewithal
to buy other necessaries or luxuries.

Cows, horses, sheep, goats, or pigs would be out of place in Lapland,
and would find nothing to eat. But the "camel of the Arctic Desert,"
as the reindeer has been called, thrives in the cold without care or
shelter, and subsists on the moss, which he obtains by scraping deep
holes in the snow. Small wonder that he is a valuable beast to the
Laplander, who, however, repays him only with blows and lashes.

Farther south, on the Hardanger Fjeld and elsewhere, herds of tame
reindeer have now been established by Norwegian companies as a new
industry. Lapps are hired to look after them, and the meat is sold
in great quantities in many parts of Europe, especially in Paris. A
good trade is done also in the skins, for glove-making and other
purposes. It is by no means difficult to have a look at one of these
herds, and any visitor to Norway who finds himself within a day's
climb of the mountains whereon a herd is known to be grazing should do
his utmost to see the reindeer. He will find them not, like the deer
in Richmond Park, waiting to be looked at, but timid and restless,
and ready to take flight at the slightest provocation. Only the Lapp
herdsmen and their dogs are able to control these wild children of
a wild land.

CHAPTER XI

WILD NATURE--BIRDS

What a place Norway must be for birds'-nesting! There, if one went at
the right time, and did not mind roughing it, one might find eggs which
one could never come across in England, although laid by birds which
are called British. But the Norwegians protect a great many of their
birds by law in the same way as we do, and if this had only been done
a hundred years ago the Great Auk would not have disappeared for ever.

Most of our British birds are found in Norway at some time of the year,
and many of our rarer birds are almost common in Norway--golden eagles,
snowy owls,