ANIMALS OF NORTH AMERICA. 89 



In usefulness, this animal exceeds all others of the northern 

 zone ; and it is a curious fact that, though domesticated in Eu- 

 rope and Asia, where, 



as beasts of burden ' 



milkers, furnishing food, 

 in the application of 

 their sinews to bow- 

 strings, and by their 

 powers of endurance, 

 they point out the ad- 

 mirable wisdom of the 

 Deity in placing them where the natives have so little to 

 depend on, yet the North American Indians have never in 

 any way made use of their living services. 



It is as yet an unsettled fact as to the identity of the 

 Cariboo or Reindeer of North America with the celebrated 

 beast of draught, and much less is known of it than of the 

 Moose. De Kay, in his history of the State of New York) 

 states it to be much of the same size as the common deer ; 

 but it is since ascertained that the adult males are often 

 found fourteen to fifteen hands high. It is this difference of 

 size which has led to the belief that the cariboo is a distinct 

 variety from that which is the chief article of food to the 

 Esquimaux of the western, and domesticated by the Lap- 

 landers of the eastern continent. That animal is scarcely 

 found south of the Arctic circle, while the Cariboo is found 

 here everywhere north of the 45th and 46th degrees north 

 latitude. 



The mode of hunting Cariboo differs in nothing from that 

 of the moose, with this exception, that owing to the inferior 

 weight of the animal, and the pliability of its pastern joint, 

 which bends so completely, at every stride, under him, as to 

 afford a very considerable fulcrum and support in the deep 

 snow, he is able to travel so much longer and so much more 

 fleetly, even through the worst crusts, that it is considered 



