WOODLAND CARIBOU. 87 



very broad, flat, and short. Inner lines straight, outer convex. Acces- 

 sory hoofs very large, broad, and flat, and subject to muscular control. 

 Hoofs all black, raetarsal gland wanting. Tarsal gland large. Interdig- 

 ital glands present in hind feet only. Antlers of male curved, long and 

 slender, with branches more or less palmated and very irregular in form. 

 Antlers on female smaller and less palmated. 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



My opportunities for a personal study of this species have been 

 limited, nor have extensive inquiries among those most familiar 

 with this deer resulted as satisfactorily as I had hoped. For the 

 present, I must say that a broad field is left for future observa- 

 tions, before our information will approach completeness. 



The range of this species is confined to the northern regions 

 of America, Europe, and Asia. It has crossed the great drain- 

 age of the lakes and the St. Lawrence, only on the lower course 

 of that river, and on Lake Superior. It is still found in New 

 Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and possibly in Maine, but is becom- 

 ing annually more and more scarce. It resides in great numbers 

 in Newfoundland, where it has been little disturbed by white 

 settlements, and whence it is said frequently to cross on the ice 

 to the continent. 



If it was ever abundant south of Lake Superior, where it was 

 found when the copper and iron mines first invited extensive set- 

 tlements there, the fact is not well attested, and I cannot learn 

 that any have been met with south of that lake within the last 

 twenty years or more. In the woodland districts of Labrador 

 they have always been at home, extending as far north as Hud- 

 son's Bay. 



From Lake Superior they extended west to the Pacific coast, 

 and west of the Barren Grounds, their range extends north to 

 the limits of the continent. In the northern parts of Montana 

 and Washington territories, and in British Columbia, they are 

 claimed to be larger than on the Atlantic coast. If they are 

 larger in size on the Pacific slope than in more easterly regions 

 their numbers are not so great. As they affect wooded coun- 

 tries almost exclusively, existence of forests in the far northwest 

 may explain their presence there ; still Ave must remember that 

 the isothermal line trends rapidly to the northwest of the one 

 hundredth meridian. In portions of the Selkirk settlement, and 

 west of Hudson's Bay these deer were formerly very abundant. 

 Sir John Richardson says : " Mr. Hutchins mentions that he has 



