The principal food of the reindeer in the barren grounds consists of the Cetraria nivalis and cucullata, Cenomyce rangiferina, Cornicularia ochrileuca, and other lichens, and they also eat the hay or dry grass which is found in the swamps in autumn.

In the woods they feed on the different lichens which hang from the trees.

They are accustomed to gnaw their fallen antlers and are said also to devour mice.
The weight of a full-grown barren-ground deer, exclusive of the offal, varies from ninety to one hundred and thirty pounds.

There is however a much larger kind found in the woody parts of the country whose carcass weighs from two hundred to two hundred and forty pounds.

This kind never leaves the woods but its skin is as much perforated by the gadfly as that of the others, a presumptive proof that the smaller species are not driven to the sea-coast solely by the attacks of that insect.