in 1960. In that year a dietary survey of the Finnish Lapps was carried ont, which involved about one third of the Lapp population in Fintard 3,/, The seasonal forage consumption by reindeer and cattle was also imvestiscted. On the basis of the results, a program of regular sampling of forage ard oF milk and tissues of reindeer and cattle was started. The results for ‘ne year: 1960 and 1961 have been published /4,5_/. The highest values of 90 Sr and 137 Cs were found in reindeer Licnets (Cladonia and Cetraria species). These plants, which nave ne veal roots iuv a simple prothallium, grow very slowly (a four inches tall Cladonia Licher, may 2« fifty years old) and have a high capacity for collecting nutritnis iron the ais and from rain or snow. In Lapland, the forest floor is generally covered by 2 dense mat of reindeer lichens, which still retain most of the fallout that rac come down during the Atomic Age. In dense patches of Cladenia lichen, wnere 1 kg of dry lichen covered about 1 mn, we found in 1961 4 ne We, ar} FO me 15os per. kg dry weight L5/e At the end of the first test moratorium, ir 1960-1951, samples of reindeer lichens collected from Inari, Finnish Laplanc. contained 3 to 10 (mean=5) ne en per ke dry wt. and about @ times nore OE, 10 to 60 (mean=40) nce/ke dry wte L4,5/. Most of the activity is in the green, living "top" part of the plant, which is eagerly eaten by the reindeer from autumn to spring, i.e. during about 8 to 9 months of the vear. Since sach reindeer eats daily about 6 kgs of lichen (50 % dry wt.), its Jatly irtaxe vas in winter 1960-61 about 15 ne Won and 120 ne 157 Cse More reecertiy wie valuce have greatly increased. | Grasses, horsetails (Equisetum) and sedges (Carex) are imporlans Usrace in Lapland for cattle throughout the year and for reindeer in the surmer. Reindeer also graze Vaccinium plamts and leaves of birch and wiilew in the summer. Results of analyses of some samples of these plants are compered alu. a typical sample of Cladonia lichen in Table I. As can be seen, in 1961 the annual parts of vascular plants had roughly 1/10th of the radionuclide conten: of lichens, Slightly lower results for reported 137 Cs in lichens from Cweder have been (10-30 ne/kg dry wt., ref.6), and higher ones from Norway, if allow- ance is made for the earlier date of sampling (36 ne/ke in 1959, ref.7). In Alaska the situation seems to be rather similar to that in Lapland. In the northern part of Alaska the Wo, on the ground, in 1959, 10-22 me/mi (=4-8 ne/m), was about the same as in Lapland and low compared with levels founc elsewhere in the U.S. (25-99 aver.50 no/mi” (=20 ne/m*“y) Lo/s Ta.9E0 ; from Ogotoruk Creek, Alaska, O contained 9 Sr 2.0 ne/ke dry wt. 4 ray oo BEMOr2 ard and aa Cs 26