The Reindeer's Endurance

Mr. F. G. Jackson has marvelouv tales to teil of the reindeer, their speed and endurance as animáis of draft- so marvelous indeed that he must forgive us for suggesting that he has made a mistake in his figures. "I have myself," he writes in the London Spectator, "driven three reindeer a distance of 120 versts within twelve houis without feeding them, and I heard of a case where a Zirian drove reindeer from Ishma, on the Pechora river, to Obdorsk, on the Obi, a distance of 309 versts, within twentytour hours. A reindeer, or Samoyer verst, by the way, is equal to four RuEsian versts." In other words, Mr. Jackson says he has driven tliree deer for twelve hours at the rate of forty Russian versts, or twenty-seven English miles, an hour. And the Zirian, with a similar team, covered 710 miles in twenty-four hours. The latter. by the way, must have crossed the Ural mountains and one or two rivera in the bargain. Surely there must bc some mistake. There exists, it is true, a well-known tradition of a reindeer which once - about 1700, we believe- carrier important dispatehes for the king of Sleden 800 miles in forty-eight hours, and, dying in the service of the king, is still preBerved- in skelcton form - in a northern museum. But that, after all, is only a tradición. Better authenticated records do not give a higher rate of speed than 150 miles to nineteen hours, wrhich is considerably higher than what Is attained by any other animal.