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HISTORY OF QUADRUPEDS.
127
THE REIN-DEER.
THE REIN-DEER.

THE REIN-DEER.

(Cervus Tarandus, Lin.—Le Renne, Buff.)

This extraordinary animal is a native of the icy regions of the North; where, by a wife and bountiful dispensation, which diffuses the common goods of Nature over every part of the habitable globe, it is made subservient to the wants of a hardy race of men inhabiting the countries near the pole, who would find it impossible to subsist among their snowy mountains without the aid of this most useful creature.

In more temperate regions, men are indebted to the unbounded liberality of Nature for a great variety of valuable creatures to serve, to nourish, and to cloath them. To the poor Laplander, the Rein-deer alone supplies the place of the Horse, the Cow, the Sheep, the Goat, &c.: