Page:Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period.djvu/218

190 march was stopped. In every pond their skeletons were to be seen, and in one ravine they lay five deep. Grisly bears, wolves, and foxes abounded in the neighbourhood.

Admiral von Wrangel gives a graphic account of the migration of reindeer observed in his journey through the stony Tundra, near the river Baranicha in north- eastern Siberia. "I had hardly finished the observation," he writes, "when my whole attention was called to a highly interesting, and to me a perfectly novel spectacle. Two large migrating bodies of reindeer passed us at no great distance. They were descending the hills from north-west and crossing the plain on their way to the forests, where they spend the winter. Both bodies of deer extended farther than the eye could reach, and formed a compact mass narrowing towards the front. They moved slowly and majestically along, their broad antlers resembling a moving wood of leafless trees. Each body was led by a deer of unusual size, which my guides assured me was always a female. One of the herds was stealthily followed by a wolf, who was apparently watching for an opportunity of seizing any one of the younger and weaker deer which might fall behind the rest; but on seeing us he made off in another direction. The other column was followed at some distance by a large black bear, who, however, appeared only intent on digging out a mouse's nest every now and then—so much so that he took no notice of us."