APPENDIX. 499 



in such abundance on the barren lands. The rein-deer 

 furnishes food and clothing to the Dog-rib and Copper 

 Indians, the Chepewyans, the Swamp or Coast Crees, and 

 to the Esquimaux ; but none of the American tribes have 

 domesticated it like the Laplanders. Every part of the 

 animal is eaten, even to the contents of its stomach ; 

 and the half-dried tongue, when roasted, is perhaps 

 the greatest delicacy that the fur countries afford. 

 Rein-deer meat, when in the best condition, is not only 

 superior to that of the moose deer and bison, but, in my 

 opinion, it surpasses the best mutton or English-fed 

 venison. When lean, however, which is the case for a 

 considerable part of the year, it is neither nutritious nor 

 palatable, the flesh of a poor musk-ox being, of all the 

 ruminating quadrupeds of the country, alone, of inferior 

 quality. The female rein-deer has horns as well as the 

 male, though they are smaller and much less palmated, 

 and are also shed at a different time. The skins of six or 

 seven young rein-deer, killed in the autumn, form, when 

 properly prepared and sewed together, a robe or blanket 

 which is constantly used by the northern Indians in 

 winter ; being both light and warm, exceedingly well 

 adapted to the climate, and affording a sufficient cover- 

 ing for a man in the coldest night. 



The Wapiti. {Cervus strongyloceros Schreber.) 



F. B. A. 1. p. 250. 



This animal, the wawaskeesh of the Crees, which in- 

 habits the plains of the Saskatchewan, the neighbouring 

 country, the banks of the Columbia, and New Cale- 

 donia, is the American representative of the red deer, 

 and though of considerably greater size, it was long 

 considered to be the same species. There are, at pre- 



K K <2 



