LIFE AND HABITS 15 



may be light or dark, as can be seen from the photographs. 

 The winter colouring is white or very light grizzly grey (so I 

 am told). The fawns are rather a warm greyish brown at first, 

 frequently becoming white or nearly white early in the 

 autumn. A peculiar feature of the Caribou is the loose 

 flap, or heavy fold of skin, which is most strongly developed 

 immediately behind the foreleg and continues to the fore 

 part of the hind leg. The feet are very large, with greatly- 

 developed cloots, or dew-claws, which are so long that they 

 leave deep impressions in the ground as the animal walks. 

 The footprints vary according to conditions. When the 

 creature is not excited the hoofs are close together, so that 

 the impression is almost circular, the cloots or secondary 

 hoof making scarcely any mark. But when they are excited 

 the hoofs spread widely and the cloots go deep into the 

 earth. This can be clearly seen in the photographs facing 

 page 14. 



One of the strangest things about the Caribou's foot is the 

 curious cracking sound which it makes when the animal is 

 walking. The popular explanation of this is that the hoofs 

 strike each other in passing ; such, however, is not the case. 

 I have most carefully watched dozens — even hundreds 

 — as they have passed me within little more than arm's 

 length of where I lay concealed. The sound does not occur 

 while the feet are off the ground, of that I am certain. 

 So far as I could judge it happens the moment the full 

 weight is put on the foot or just before it is relieved of the 

 weight, and as it is equally noticeable whether the animal is 

 walking on hard ground or on soft bog, it cannot be caused 

 by the hoofs striking the ground, but more likely by some 

 internal mechanism of the foot. It is so loud that on a 

 quiet day it can easily be heard a hundred and fifty 

 feet or more away ; when a large number of Caribou are 



