THE PLANT-EATERS OF NORTH AMERICA. 681 



only one fawn, but afterward two, and it is believed by the hunters 

 that these twins are always one male and one female. The moose is 

 hunted at the yards, and also pursued with dogs until it is fatigued 

 and overtaken ; and it is also shot on the lake-shores and river-mar- 

 gins, in the early autumn, by moonlight. The flesh of the moose, 

 though rather coarse, is highly prized as food by many, and is a very 

 good substitute for beef. The nose and the tongue are regarded as 

 great delicacies. The marrow from the shank-bones is used by the 

 hunters to spread upon their bread and eaten as butter. 



It may be stated here that our moose is so nearly like the great 

 elk of the northern part of Europe, that there is still perhaps a 

 question whether the two are of one species. A fossil elk has been 

 found in the marl beneath the peat-bogs of Ireland, which is of an 

 entirely different species from any now living. This fossil elk was 

 ten feet high to the top of the horns, whose tips are ten feet apart ! 



People generally think of the reindeer only as an inhabitant of 

 the cold portions of Europe. But North America has at least one 

 species of reindeer, although it is more generally called caribou. The 

 woodland caribou, or reindeer {Rang if er caribou), of New Bruns- 

 wick, Maine, and westward to Lake Superior, is thought by some to 

 be identical with the reindeer of Lapland. The barren-ground cari- 

 bou, or reindeer {R. Groenlandicus), is found in the arctic regions 

 beyond the limits of trees, and may be only a variety of the former. 



Unlike the other deer, the reindeer have the horns present on both 

 sexes. The horns are palmated only at the tip, but, like those of 

 all other deer, are shed and renewed periodically. The history of the 

 reindeer of Lapland is well known, and from that history we learn 

 how useful our own species may yet be made. As is well known, the 

 Laplanders have large herds of these animals, and use them for 

 beasts of burden and for draught, their milk and flesh for food, their 

 skins for clothing and for covering their sledges. The reindeer is a 

 very hardy animal, and draws the sledge of its owner with great 

 speed. In one of the palaces in Sweden there is a picture of one of 

 these animals, which is preserved with great care, from the fact that 

 the animal from which it was painted drew the sledge of an officer, 

 with important dispatches, the distance of eight hundred miles in 

 forty-eight hours ! 



The caribou or American reindeer (Fig. 2) is considerably larger 

 than the common deer, now so often seen in our parks. Its color is 

 deep brown in summer and grayish in winter. In the winter this 

 animal stays in the swamps, much of the time, and feeds mainly on 

 the mosses and lichens that hang from the trees and bushes, but in 

 early spring it retires to the hill-sides and feeds upon the buds and 

 twigs. Like its European r-elation, it is very fleet of foot, trotting, or 

 galloping, or leaping, with the greatest ease ; and it is also capable 

 of great endurance. For more than a week hunters have followed a 



