THE AMERICAN REINDEER. 123 



damage it does to the grasses and Iceland moss on the 

 plains. According to Professor Paijkull, author of "A 

 Summer in Iceland," the desert plains south of Lake 

 Myvatn are its principal resort. 



Crossing the Atlantic to the south of Greenland, which 

 is inhabited by the variety (or species ?) R. Groenlandicus, 

 the American reindeer, now termed 'the cariboo, is first 

 met with in Newfoundland. It is abundant on the 

 elevated plateaux and extensive savannahs of this great 

 island, and is sometimes seen on the cliffs even at Cape 

 Kace. 



The most southerly range attained by the species on 

 the Atlantic seaboard of North America is determined at 

 Cape Sable in Nova Scotia, in lat. 43° 30', or about that 

 of Marseilles. In this province the cariboo is becoming 

 very scarce, and almost altogether restricted to the high 

 lands of Cape Breton, and the Cobequid range of hills. 

 It is not found in Prince Edward's Island or in 

 Anticosti. 



Tolerably abundant in New Brunswick and the ad- 

 joining portion of Canada south of the St. Lawrence to 

 the latitude of Quebec, of rarer occurrence in the State of 

 Maine, we find the home of the woodland cariboo 

 in the great belt of coniferous forest which in Upper 

 and Lower Canada extends northwards from the basin of 

 the St. Lawrence over an immense wilderness country, 

 and embraces the southern area of the Hudson's Bay 

 basin. From the western shore of Lake Superior, and 

 at some distance back from the prairie country, the line 

 of its range across the continent curves to the north- 

 west, following the rapidly ascending isotherm into 

 the Valley of the Mackenzie, and thence crossing the 



