118 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 



whole ol' northern Siberia and in the mountains as far south as lati- 

 tude 52°. Reindeer are especially numerous in eastern Siberia, in 

 Kamchatka, and in the region bordered by the Sea of Okhotsk, where 

 they are largel}^ domesticated. They have been imported into Ice- 

 land, where they have escaped from domestication and now run wild 

 in great herds. They are found in Greenland, and, more wonderful 

 still, in Spitzbergen, a group of islands in the Ai'ctic Ocean nearly 

 400 miles north of Norway, stretching from latitude 76° 30' to 80° 30'. 

 Sportsmen have killed reindeer there by the thousand. This is, of 

 course, a long way north of the northern limit of tree growth. The 

 forest of more southern latitudes is here represented only by willows 

 a few inches high. There are some flowering plants, but the principal 

 vegetation consists of mosses and lichen, on which the reindeer feed. 

 In short, the range of the reindeer and caribou is bounded by the 

 isothermal line which determines the character of the vegetation on 

 which they feed. The}^ apparently prefer a species of lichen {Cla- 

 donia rangiferina) , which for this reason is commonly called " reindeer 

 moss," but they eat also other cryptogams, and they are very fond 

 of muslu'ooms. In summer they browse much on willows and other 

 brush, as well as grass. 



In a former epoch the reindeer inhabited all of Europe, even down 

 to the Mediterranean, having apparently been driven south })y the 

 advancing ice. Its remains have been found in France and elsewhere 

 in continental Europe and in Scotland and in Ireland. 



TWO RACES OF CARIBOU. 



It may be noted here that in America there are two races of the 

 caribou, commonly named after the range they occupy. One is caUed 

 the Woodland caribou, and occupies the southern limit of the range; 

 it feeds largely on grasses, and migrates southward in summer. The 

 other, which is known as the Barren Ground caribou, follows the 

 receding cold weather to the northward in summer, and goes to the 

 woods, when it goes there at all, only in winter. The two differ in 

 size, the northi^en type being the larger; they differ also in the antlers, 

 which in the northern type are more palmated — that is, flattened — 

 than in the southern t}^e. These and other slight differences may be 

 sufficient to separate the species — they are certainly varieties; but it 

 is worth noting that no one thinks of erecting new species among our 

 domestic cattle. And yet there are more marked differences between 

 a Jersey and a Galloway, for instance, or a Merino sheep and a Black- 

 faced Scotch, or between a racer and a Shire horse, than between 

 these groups of the reindeer. 



