BARREN-GROUND CARIBOU. 107 



similitudes between our two kinds of caribou, there are numer- 

 ous well authenticated differences, which when well considered 

 not only justify but compel us to class them as distinct species. 



The difference in size, if this were the only distinction, would be 

 entitled to but little weight in the consideration of this question, 

 especially when we remember that we often find animals of the 

 same species occupying high latitudes, smaller in size than those 

 of warmer countries. The reverse, however, we find generally 

 the case with our Cervidse. Our common deer are the smallest 

 in Texas and Mexico, where, simply on account of their diminu- 

 tive size, without any other well established and universal dis- 

 tinction, they have been classed as a distinct species, Cervus 

 Mexicanus. The mule deer in Lower California are even more 

 diminutive in size, and their antlers have been reduced to a single 

 spike. We may find little difference in the size of the moose, 

 which we may ascribe to a difference in the latitude of their 

 habitat. In the valley of the Mississippi the weight of evidence 

 is that the southern Elk are the largest ; but I do not learn that 

 this is so on the Pacific slope, or even in the Rocky Mountains. I 

 repeat, however, that I should not consider the difference in size, 

 which is fully one half, sufficient of itself to establish a specific 

 difference. 



The proportionate difference in the size of their antlers is still 

 greater, and I think possesses more significance. While the size 

 of this animal is only half that of the woodland caribou, its antlers 

 are fully twice as large. This proportionate difference of four to 

 one is entitled to weight in this inquiry. Buffon and some 

 others have concluded that the size of the antlers depend largely 

 upon the amount and quality of the food supplied the deer. 

 This position is not absolutely refuted in this instance, for the 

 supply of food to the Barren-ground Caribou is really unlimited, 

 and is of the most nutritious quality, but the same is true also in 

 that portion of Labrador occupied by the larger species. Hind 

 assures us that he there found the beds of reindeer moss three 

 feet deep, affording comfortable walking over vast fields of erratic 

 rocks, which were almost impassable where the moss had been 

 burned off, and yet not a word is said about an excessive de- 

 velopment of the antlers of the deer. If the great abundance 

 and excellent quality of the food supplied the northern deer, has 

 stimulated to this excessive growth of the antlers, it would cer- 

 tainly be not unreasonable to expect that it would have equally 

 promoted an increase of the body of the animal, for all admit 



