350 NEAREST THE POLE 



return from his recent long sojourn in the high North 

 contains five specimens of Caribou taken in EUesmere 

 Land, Lat. 79°, in June, 1902. They comprise four 

 flat skins of adults without skulls, and more or less 

 defective, and the complete skin of a young fawn. In 

 colouration they are strikingly different from any other 

 known Caribou, being pure white except for a large dark 

 patch on the middle and posterior part of the back. 



ELLESMERE LAND CARIBOU 



Rangifer Pearyi, sp. nov. 



Type, No. 1923 1 o^ ad., EUesmere Land, N. Lat. 79°, June 15, 1902, 

 Commander Robert E. Peary, U. S. N. 



Entire animal pure white except an oval grayish brown patch over 

 the posterior half of the dorsal surface, gradually fading into white toward 

 the shoulders, the hair being white to the base, or of a pale shade of lilac 

 below the surface, where the surface colour is white. The dorsal patch 

 occupies an area of about 670 mm. in length by 350 mm. in width, and is 

 drab-gray, divided by a very narrow median line of white. The legs and 

 feet are wholly white; the ears are slightly tinged with gray, the hair 

 beneath the surface being plumbeous and showing slightly at the surface. 

 The antlers are just budding, being represented by small protuberances, 

 about an inch and a half in length, covered with short hair. Total length 

 of fiat skin, 1660 mm. Corresponding measurement of flat skins of the 

 dark form of Caribou from Greenland, 1820 mm. 



A female (No. 19232) is similar, except that the dark dorsal area ex- 

 tends a little further forward at the shoulders, and is a little darker. As 

 in the male, the patch fades out to whitish toward the shoulders. Length 

 of the flat skin, 1560 mm. 



Two other females are similarly marked, but the dorsal patch in both 

 is much darker, approaching dark slate gray. The region around the 

 base of the antlers and ears is clouded with grayish, as are the edges of 

 the ears; the front surface of the forelegs is dark grayish brown, and of 

 the hind legs faint buffy grayish brown, increasing in amount and in- 

 tensity apically from the tarsal joint to the hoofs. These skins measure 

 respectively 1610 and 1570 mm. in total length. In one the antlers form 

 knobs an inch or two in height, covered with short hair. 



A fawn (No. 19235), a few weeks old, is grayish white on the head, 

 ears, neck, limbs, ventral surface and sides of the body, the hairs being 



