119 



Reindeer and Caribou. 



CHAPTER V. 



THE NEWFOUNDLAND CARIBOU AS A SPECIES. 



Having devoted the greater part of my life to the study 

 of Hving wild animals and their habits rather than their 

 measurements, cranial conformations and other structural 

 differences and peculiarities, I feel that in attempting any 

 explanation of the specific difference between the Caribou 

 of Newfoundland and that of other species and sub-species 

 I shall be treading on extremely thin ice. 



First of all, I might say that I do not want to hurt 

 the feelings of those whose life-work is the determining 

 and describing of species, and who, perhaps, never see the 

 wild animals themselves in a live state. But I confess that 

 the everlasting dividings and sub-dividings do not seem 

 to me to serve any useful purpose, imless the conclusions 

 are really based on something both tangible and constant. 

 For evidence of the frequent slenderness of the claims we do 

 not have to look far, for it is only too common an occurrence 



