CERVIDJE. 



CERVIDjE. 



834 



such a case, is sure to perish with hunger. In the summer, when the 

 Rein-Deer ranges upon the Alps, a number of plants afford it food. 

 Hagritrom states that it refuses to eat 46 species, the names of which 

 he gives. Richardson states that the Barren-Ground Caribou, which 

 resort to the coasts of the Arctic Sea in summer, retire in winter 

 to the woods lying between 63 and 66 N. lat., where they feed on 

 the Usnecf, Alectoricf, and other lichens which hang from the trees 

 and on the long grass of the swamps. About the end of April, when 

 the partial melting of the snow has softened the Cetrariie, Cornicu- 

 larvf, and Cenomyces, which clothe the Barren Grounds like a carpet, 

 they make short excursions from the woods, but return to them when 

 the weather in frosty. In May the females proceed towards the sea- 

 coast, and towards the end of June the males are in full march in 

 the same direction. At that period the sun has dried up the lichens 

 on the Barren Grounds, and the Caribou frequent the moist pastures 

 which cover the bottoms of the narrow valleys on the coasts and 

 islands of the Arctic Sea, where they graze on the sprouting Caricei, 

 and on the withered grass or hay of the preceding year, which is at 

 that period still standing and retaining part of its sap. Their spring 

 journey is performed partly on the snow, and partly, after the snow 

 has disappeared, on the ice covering the rivers and lakes, which have 

 in general a northerly direction. Soon after their arrival on the coast 

 the females drop their young; they commence their return to the 

 south in September, and reach the vicinity of the woods towards the 

 end of October, where they are joined by the males. This journey 

 takes place after the snow has fallen, and they scrape it away with 

 their feet to procure the lichens, which are then tender and pulpy, 

 being preserved moist and unfrozen by the heat still remaining in the 

 earth. Except hi the rutting season, the bulk of the males and females 

 live separately ; the former retire deeper into the woods in the winter, 

 whilst herds of the pregnant does stay on the skirts of the Barren 

 Grounds, and proceed to the coast very early in the spring. Captain 

 (Sir William) Parry saw deer on Melville peninsula as late as the 

 23rd of September, and the females with their fawns made their first 

 appearance on the 22nd of April. The males in general do not go so 

 far north as the females. On the coast of Hudson's Bay the Barren- 

 Ground Caribou migrate farther south than those on the Coppermine 

 Kiver or Mackenzie River, but none of them go to the southward of 

 the Churchill The lichens on which the Caribou principally feed whilst 

 on the Barren Grounds are C'umicularia trittu, C, divergent, and C. 

 in'lii-itturii, C'etmrin niivi/w, C. cucullata, and C. Itlafldica, and 

 Cenomyce ranyiferina. (' Fauna Boreali-Americana.') In the isthmus 

 of Boothia the Rein-Deer does arrived about the middle of April, the 

 bucks nearly a month later ; and herds of several hundreds were seen 

 about the isthmus towards the end of May. Numbers of the fawns, 

 which at that period are in a very weak state, are killed by the 

 natives, who hunt them with their dogs ; and the does themselves 

 often fall victims to their attachment to their offspring. Captain 

 James Ross states that the Rein-Deer feeds on the L r nea, AlectoritK, 

 C'etrarut, and other lichens in the early part of spring ; but as the 

 summer advances the young and tender grass fattens them so quickly 

 that in August they have been killed with several inches thick of fat 

 on their haunches. In this state the meat is equal to the finest Eng- 

 lish venison, but is most tasteless and insipid when in poor condition. 

 (Appendix to Sir John Ross's ' Last Voyage.') 



The Caribou travel in herds varying in number from eight or ten to 

 two or three hundred ; their daily excursions being generally towards 

 the quarter from which the wind blows. The Indians kill them with 

 bows and arrows or guns, sometimes approaching by means of a dis- 

 guise, sometimes taking advantage of rocks or other shelter, and 

 always greatly assisted by the curiosity and unsuspecting nature of 

 the deer themselves. They also take the Rein-Deer in snares, or spear 

 them as they are crossing rivers or lakes. The Esquimaux take them 

 in traps ingeniously formed of ice and snow. A single family of 

 Indians will sometimes destroy two or three hundred in a few weeks ; 

 and in many cases they are killed for the sake of their tongues alone. 

 The reader will find a graphic account of the Esquimaux method of 

 taking them in Captain Lyon's ' Private Journal," p. :i:ji! ; and a 

 description of the deer found in use among the Chepewyans (Chip- 

 pewayg), in Hearne. Sir John Franklin ingenious methods 



pursued by the Copper Indians and Dog-Kiln. Captain James Rons 

 remarks that the natives of Boothia seldom hunt the Rein-Drcr in the 

 spring, and then the bow and arrow is tho only mo.lr of killing it ; 

 but in the autumn, as the animals return from the north in fine con- 

 dition, they are destroyed in great number* by parties of the natives 

 driving them into the water, whilst others in canoea kill them with 

 spears at their leisure. 



Ctility to Man. To the Laplander particularly the Rein-Deer is 

 all in all. According to Hoffberg, the mountaineer very often pos- 

 sesses three or four hundred or even a thousand head ; the woodman 

 very rarely above one hundred. As a domestic animal, yielding a 

 quantity of the most delicious food, and occupying the place of the 

 cow and the ox, it is invaluable. As a beast of burden its importance 

 i* equally great, and its organisation is adapted to the icy wastes, over 

 which it forms the Laplander's sole medium of communication, no 

 han that of the camel is framed for those arid deserts which 

 without the latter animal would be impassable. The weight which it 

 can draw when harnessed to a sledge is said to be 300 Ibs. ; but 2401bs. 



form the general limit of the burden. The talcs told of its swiftness, 

 when thus employed, would appear almost incredible if not so well 

 attested as they are. In a race of three deer with light sledges started 

 by Pictet, who went to the north of Lapland in 1709 to observe the 

 transit of Venus, the first performed 3089 ft. 8 in. and fta in two 

 minutes, making a rate of nearly 19 English miles an hour; the 

 second went over the same ground in three minutes, and the last in 

 three minutes twenty-six seconds. One is recorded to have drawn an 

 officer with important dispatches, in 1699, 800 English miles in forty- 

 eight hours ; and the portrait of the poor deer, which fell dead at the 

 end of its wonderful journey, is still preserved in the palace of Drot- 

 ningholm in Sweden. Journeys of 150 miles in nineteen hours are 

 said not to be uncommon. 



To the natives of North America the Rein-Deer is only known as a 

 beast of chase, but it is a most important one : there is hardly a part 

 of the animal which is not made available to some useful purpose. 

 Clothing made of the skin is, according to Richardson, so impervious 

 to the cold, that, with the addition of a blanket of the same material, 

 any one so clothed may bivouack on the snow with safety in the most 

 intense cold of an arctic winter's night. The venison, when in high 

 condition, has several inches of fat on the haunches, and is said to 

 equal that of the fallow-deer in our best British parks ; the tongue 

 and some of the tripe are reckoned most delicious morsels. Pemmican 

 is formed by pouring one-third part of melted fat over the pounded 

 meat and incorporating them well together. The Esquimaux and 

 Greenlanders consider the stomach or paunch, with its contents, a 

 great delicacy, and Captain James Ross says that those contents form 

 the only vegetable food which the natives of Boothia ever taste. 

 (Richardson's ' Fauna Boreali- Americana.') 



Rein-Deer (Tarandlts Itangifel-}. 



Highly excellent as an article of food, and useful domestically as 

 this animal is, we do not think that it can ever be introduced with 

 much success into the British Islands. Not that there would be much 

 difficulty about the food for the deer ; it is space that is wanting. A 

 long succession of generations would be required before the migratory 

 habits of the Rein-Deer could be got rid of, and possessing as we do 

 the best venison, and the finest breed of horned cattle and horses, 

 there seems no very good reason for repeating the experiments which 

 have already been tried and have failed. 



3. Cerrtit Ctnuulrnnin, the Wapiti. This animal is the Wapiti Stag of 

 Pennant, ' Arctic Zool." ; Wewaskiss of Hearne ; Waskeesews, or Red- 

 Deer, of Hutchins ; Red-Deer of Umfreville ; the Elk of Lewis and 

 Clark ; the American Elk of Bewick ; Wapiti of Barton and Warden ; 

 Le Wapiti of F. Cuvier; the Wapiti (V. Stroagyloeero*) of Smith; 

 Red Deer of the Hudson's Bay Traders ; La Biche of the Canadian 

 Voyageurs ; Wawaskeesho, Avraskees, and Moostoeh, of the Cree 

 Indians (Richardson). It is also Le (.'erf du Canada of Cuvier, who 

 makes it the C. C'atuidnurii of ( imrlin I llnffon), and G. Strongyloceros 

 of Srhreber; and Cerf Wapiti of Lesson, who states it to be C. Wapiti 

 of Mitchell and C. major of Ord. It may be also the Stag of 

 < 'arolina of Lawson, but he describes it as "not so large as in Europe, 

 but much larger than any fallow-deer ; " and he says they are always 

 fat with some delicate herbage that grows on the hills, whereas the 

 modern travellers describe the Wapiti ns frequenting the savannahs 

 or the clumps of wood that skirt the plains. There is hardly any 

 doubt that it is the Stag of America (C. major Americanns) of 

 Catesby. " This beast," says the author lost named, " nearest 

 resembles the European red deer in colour, shape, and form of the 

 horns, though it is a much larger animal and of stronger make. 

 Their horns are not palmated but round, a pair of which weighs 

 upwards of thirty pounds. They usually accompany buffaloes 

 (Bisons), with whom they range in droves in the upper and remote 

 parts of Carolina, where, as well as in our other colonies, they are 

 improperly called Elks. The French in America^ftll this beast the 



