Reindeer are subject to a disease called by the Laplanders _Pekke Kattiata_, accompanied with ulcerations of the flesh, which however often heal by a sloughing of the part affected. This is an epidemic disorder. It is believed that if any of the ulcerous part, which is cast off, be swallowed by the animal, in licking his own coat, or that of any other of the herd labouring under this malady, it proves fatal by corroding the viscera. The dugs of the female often become chapped or sore, so as to bleed whenever they are milked. The male reindeer in his natural state is fatter than such as are castrated, except the latter be kept without work, in which case they become the fattest. Such as are castrated and allowed to run wild, become considerably larger, as well as tamer, in consequence. The rutting season lasts but a fortnight, that is, from about a week preceding the feast of St. Matthew (Sept. 21.) to Michaelmas day, during which period the male is savage and dangerous. Immediately afterwards he casts his coat and horns, and not unfrequently becomes so emaciated, that, in many instances, death is the consequence. Towards the feast of St. Eric (May 18.) in the following year, or within a fortnight of that period, very rarely later, the females bring forth their young. They do not copulate the first year, and seldom before the third, their progeny being found the better for this delay. Indeed neither the males nor females arrive at their full growth and perfection before they are towards three years old. The fawn, whether male or female, is called the first year _mesk_; the second season the male is called _orryck_, and the female _whenial_. In the third year the latter, if she has been covered, is known by the appellation of _watja_ or _waja_, which means a wife; if otherwise, she goes by the name of _whenial-rotha_, the three-year old male being called _wubbers_. In his fourth year the male is termed _koddutis_; in the following one _kosittis_; in the sixth _machanis_, and in the seventh _namma lappotachis_. After that period no male is kept, they all perishing in consequence of the exhaustion above mentioned, but the castrated ones live to a more advanced age. None of these animals however survive beyond their twelfth or fourteenth year. When the castrated males become very fat towards autumn, and show signs of old age; or the females, having become barren, appear otherwise to be on the decline, they are killed, by the knife, in the close of the year; from an apprehension that they might otherwise perish of themselves from infirmity, in the course of another season.