REINDEER FOR LABRADOR 259 



land. These deer are of the same species as our domestic 

 reindeer (Cervus tarandus) , though of slightly different 

 varieties, the barren-land caribou and the Canadian wood- 

 land caribou being about the same size, but both of rather 

 smaller growth than the Newfoundland woodland variety. 

 This difference might reasonably be accredited to ages of 

 access to a superior food-supply, and this has been one 

 factor to influence us in keeping temporarily our small 

 experimental herd on the south side of the Straits of Belle 

 Isle. The herds in the Canadian barren-land are phe- 

 nomenally large. The photographs taken by Mr. J. B. 

 Tyrrell show interminable serried ranks on the march, re- 

 sembling with their long, slight horns a vast army of spear- 

 men. In 1909 a herd of half a million of these barren-land 

 caribou was reported from Dawson City as travelling along 

 the Tanana River beyond Sixty-mile River. The pro- 

 cession was described as twenty miles wide. 



It seems to have been shown that deer, freed from the 

 fear of man, have a great predilection for associating with 

 domestic cattle. In New England, once they learn they 

 have nothing to fear from man, deer will come down among 

 the cattle almost into the farm-yard. Thus, the further 

 hope that the young of the wild species might be cut out, 

 corralled, and raised with a domestic herd without any fear 

 of their again returning to the wild, seems to be assured. 

 Also it has been shown that the two varieties can inter- 

 breed successfully. On one occasion a Newfoundland cari- 

 bou joined our herd; it so closely resembled our own deer 

 that an English friend tried to knock up the rifle of the 

 Lapp herder who was shooting it from twenty yards away. 

 Again, two of these same caribou joined a section of the 



