The _horns_ are converted into handles for different kinds of instruments, and an excellent glue is made of them. The _bones_ are likewise of use; and the _sinews_ or tendons of the legs, after having been held before the fire and beaten with wooden hammers, are divided into filaments as fine as hair, which answer all the purposes of thread; and these filaments twisted together, serve for bowstrings and cords of different kinds. So numerous and important are the uses of the rein-deer in Lapland, that there are few inhabitants of that country who do not possess them; and some of the wealthiest Laplanders have herds consisting of more than 1000 head. In the summer-time these feed on divers plants which flourish during that season; but, in winter, they either browze on the rein-deer liverwort (_Lichen rangiferinus_), which they dig up from beneath the snow with their feet and horns; or on another kind of liverwort, which hangs on the branches of fir-trees, and which affords them sustenance when the snows are too deep or too hard frozen to allow them to reach that. Wild rein-deer live in the mountains and woods, and the hunting of them is, in general, attended with excessive fatigue; as they are endowed with astonishing muscular powers, and also possess a nicety and acuteness of precaution which can scarcely be equalled. Some idea may be formed of the difficulty of this pursuit, when it is stated that a Laplander, in chase of one of these animals, has been known to creep on his hands and knees through shrubs and moss, for nearly five miles, before he could approach within gun-shot of his prey. The various modes in which rein-deer are pursued, are too numerous and too intricate to require a detail in this place. It may be sufficient to say that they are assailed by dogs, traps, pitfalls, snares, cross-bows, and fire-arms, in all the ways which the inventive art of man can devise. 83. _The STAG, or RED DEER_ (Cervus elaphus, Fig. 9), _is a large species of deer, generally of reddish brown colour on the upper parts of the body, and white beneath; with large and much branched horns, rounded through their whole length._ _The males only are horned. The males is called_ stag, _or_ hart, _the female_ hind, _and the young one has the name of_ fawn. _Red deer are found in the mountainous parts of Scotland; in the forest of Martindale, Cumberland; in the New Forest, Hampshire; in the woods on the river Tamar, in Devonshire; and amongst the mountains of Kerry in Ireland. On the Continent of Europe and in several parts of Asia and North America, they are very common._