The Moose, Caribou, and Small Deer. 131 



west, whereby wapiti and not " moose " are meant. On none of 

 the Elk Rivers I have ever heard of are moose to be found at 



present. 



CARIBOU. 



It would be difficult to discover a more telling proof of what 

 modern means of transportation can accomplish, than is shown by 

 the experiment of introducing reindeer into Alaska, which until 

 quite lately was carried on by the United States Government. 

 Into this excessively remote corner of the world, large herds of this 

 animal have been brought, not only from far away Norway, on the 

 other side of the globe, but also from the tundras of Siberia. From 

 the East and from the West the reindeer was made to invade 

 Alaska, crossing oceans in the swiftest steamers and the continent 

 in special trains. On reaching the Pacific coast, the animals were 

 re-embarked in coast steamers, and after a long and rough journey 

 were at last landed on the shores of their future home. 



Should the expectations of the competent naturalists who 

 recommended this novel attempt to improve upon the provisions of 

 nature become fulfilled, science will have achieved what nature for 

 some mysterious reason did not see fit to bring about. Tens of 

 thousands of an allied species, the Barren-ground caribou, inhabit 

 regions adjacent to Alaska, where, as anybody who has read 

 Mr. Warburton Pike's book will remember, vast herds the La 

 Foule of the French half-breeds can be watched when migrating 

 towards the end of October to the frozen barrens north of Great 

 Slave Lake. None stray, however, to those regions of Alaska where 

 the native and the white miner is so much in need of a beast 

 eminently suited for purely domestic as well as for commercial 

 purposes. For three hundred years hordes of human beings from 

 all quarters of the globe have invaded the New World, testing to 

 breaking point her wonderful powers of assimilating the most 

 incongruous elements. It is safe to say, however, that no more 

 curious ship load of emigrants ever stepped the shore of North 

 America than the one that issued forth from the good ship 

 Manitoban in February, 1898. Five hundred and forty-seven 



K 2 



