WILD NATURE--BEASTS
In a country like Norway, with its vast forests and waste moorlands,
it is only natural to find a considerable variety of animals and
birds. Some of these are peculiar to Scandinavia. Some, though only
occasionally met with in the British Isles, are not rare in Norway;
whilst others (more especially among the birds) are equally common
in both countries.
There was a time when the people of England lived in a state of fear
and dread of the ravages of wolves and bears, and the Norwegians of
the country districts even now have to guard their flocks and herds
from these destroyers. Except in the forest tracts of the Far North,
however, bears are not numerous, but in some parts, even in the South,
they are sufficiently so to be a nuisance, and are ruthlessly hunted
down by the farmers. As far as wolves are concerned civilization is,
fortunately, driving them farther afield each year, and only in the
most out-of-the-way parts are they ever encountered nowadays. Stories
of packs of hungry wolves following in the wake of a sleigh are still
told to the children in Norway, but they relate to bygone times--half
a century or more ago, and such wild excitements no longer enter into
the Norsemen's lives.
Yet less ferocious animals give the people trouble enough, and
amongst these may be mentioned the lynx and the wolverine, or glutton,
each of which will make his supper off a sheep or a goat if he gets
the chance. Of the two the lynx is perhaps the worse poacher, and
his proverbial sharpness renders him difficult to catch. Not so the
glutton, who, if he succeeds in crawling through a hole in the fence
of a sheepfold, stuffs himself so full that he cannot get out again. I
think that most of us would rather be called lynx-eyed than gluttonous,
and certainly a lynx is a much handsomer beast than a glutton.
With the exception of the rabbit, all our English animals are found
in Norway--the badger, fox, hare, otter, squirrel, hedgehog, polecat,
stoat, and the rest of them. But besides these there are little Arctic
foxes and Arctic hares, with bluish-grey coats in the summer and
snowy-white ones in the winter. This change of colour is a provision
of Nature, rendering these particular animals, and some birds also,
almost invisible among the snows. The ermine is another instance of
this. In summer he is just an ugly little brown stoat; but in winter
he comes out in pure white, with a jet-black tip to his tail, a skin
worth a lot of money.
Of all these small Norwegian animals perhaps the most interesting
is the lemming, who, for some reason best known to himself, does not
trouble to put on a white coat in the winter, but keeps to his stripy
jacket all the year round. He lives everywhere--up on the mountains
and down in the valleys, and is hardly as large as an ordinary rat;
but woe betide the dog that brings him to bay, for if he finds his
road to escape barred, he will sit up and fight to the death, and he
knows how to bite. Yet he would much rather run away if he could,
as in ordinary life he is quite peacefully inclined, and feeds on
nothing more than grass and herbs and roots.
But there is a peculiarity about the lemming which makes the
country-folk of Norway more afraid of him than of any other animal. In
most years you may wander about the country for weeks and never see a
lemming, but occasionally there comes what is called a "lemming-year,"
when more young lemmings are born than usual, and then the trouble
begins. They eat up everything round about their homes, and they begin
to wander in search of food in packs of thousands, like swarms of
locusts. The farmers try to destroy them, but they soon give up the
attempt, as for days and days the lemmings come on in great waves,
eating up the grass and the crops wherever they pass. Except the sea,
nothing will stop them when once they have made a start; they come
down the mountain-sides, swim the rivers and streams, rush through the
forests, and, eating as they go, devastate the farm-lands. They do not
wander hither and thither, but keep to the same direction straight
ahead, until they eventually reach the sea. Whether they think that
it is only another river to be crossed, or whether they think that
they have done enough damage for one lifetime, nobody knows; but into
the sea they all plunge madly, and, of course, are soon drowned.
This, however, does not end the nuisance, for thousands of them
die as they sweep over the country, leaving their dead bodies to
poison the water, and thus making the people ill with what they term
"lemming fever." So the pretty little lemmings are on occasions
more to be dreaded than are even bears and wolves, but fortunately
"lemming-years" do not come round very often, and the whole country
is not visited by the pest at the same time. They made their last
big raid in several districts in 1902, and they may come swarming
down from the mountains again any summer.
I must now say something about the wild animals which are helpful
to the people in that they provide them with food and bring money to
their pockets. Foxes and other fur-bearing animals will always fetch
good prices. There are also the hares, especially the white ones,
which are shot and snared in winter-time in great quantities, and
sold all over Europe. You may see them hanging up in the poulterers'
shops in London. Then there is that huge beast, the elk, almost as
big as a small horse, who roams about the forests like his Canadian
brother, the moose, and is hunted and shot for his flesh, skin, and
massive flat horns. Red deer there are also in some parts of Norway;
but the animal of greatest interest is undoubtedly the reindeer.
Up on the great mountain plateaux there are still plenty of wild
reindeer roaming about in large herds, and numbers of them are shot
every autumn by the farmers, who sell the skins, and dry the meat
to be eaten in the winter months. It is, however, the so-called tame
reindeer which are so invaluable to the people of the North. Without
them it would be difficult, if not impossible, for the Laplanders to
exist, and without them thousands of Norwegians would be poor indeed.
It is a popular idea that, in the winter, reindeer draw the sleighs
all over Norway. As a matter of fact, it is only in the extreme North,
among the Lapps, that reindeer are employed for this kind of work; and
very few Europeans ever have the opportunity of enjoying a drive in a
reindeer "pulk," as the queer sleigh is called. That the experience
is most exhilarating and exciting is certain. In the first place,
there is only one trace, connecting a kind of shoulder harness with
the forepart of the sleigh; again, there is only one rein coming from
a collar round the deer's neck, and consequently driving a reindeer
as we drive a horse is, of course, out of the question. All that
it is possible to do is to head him in the required direction, and
hope for the best. A jerk of the rein sets him going; and, as often
as not, he starts at a frantic gallop, kicking up the snow into the
driver's face until he is almost blinded, and careering right and
left at his own sweet will until he is tired. There is no difficulty
about keeping to the road, because there are no roads--only miles and
miles of snow, and the reindeer knows pretty well which way to go,
since the camping-places and habitations in these regions are limited.
Imagine what it would be like to jump into a boat-like "pulk" all
alone--for there is only room for one--twist the rein round your wrist,
give it a flick, and so away over the waste of snow, watching the
great antlers of the deer in front of you, and flinging yourself from
side to side to prevent capsizing. And, if you do happen to upset,
you must hang on to the rein like grim death and be dragged over the
snow, otherwise the reindeer will either fly like the wind and be lost,
or he may turn on you and attack you with his fore-hoofs.
These are the animals which are called the tame reindeer, but
their tameness only consists in the fact that they are kept in herds
together, and watched by men and dogs. They graze wherever they choose,
and the men and the dogs have to follow them. When they are wanted
for driving, to be milked, or to be killed, the Lapp has to lasso
them over the horns, from a distance of thirty or forty yards, for no
reindeer is ever sufficiently tame to permit a man to walk up to him.
The wealth of a Laplander depends on the number of reindeer which he
possesses. They carry his baggage and draw his sleighs 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.