126 FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



of Hudson's Bay, above the northern limit of foresi 

 growth ; it inhabits Melville and other islands of the 

 Arctic archipelago, and is found in Greenland. 



The cariboo of the forests of Lower Canada, New- 

 foundland and Nova Scotia, which we now proceed to 

 describe, seems to attain in this portion of America, the 

 finest development of which the species is susceptible. 

 It is a strongly-built, thick-set animal, (that is by com- 

 parison with the more graceful of the Cervidse), yet far 

 from being as ungainly and slouching as the Norwegian 

 reindeer is commonly depicted in drawings, though 

 these are probably generally taken from domesticated 

 specimens, which they resemble much more closely than 

 they do the wild deer of the mountains. A very large 

 buck in Newfoundland will exceed four hundred pounds 

 in weight, and measure over four feet in height at the 

 shoulder. I have seen a cariboo in Nova Scotia that 

 must have considerably exceeded four feet six inches in 

 height, and was thought by the Indian at a distance off 

 to have been a moose. 



Eeindeer of a similar development, and in colour 

 closely resembling the cariboo of Eastern America, were 

 met with by Erman in Eastern Asia, where they are used 

 for the saddle (placed on the shoulder — the only part of 

 the back where the deer can support a load) by the 

 Tunguzes. He states that the Lapland reindeer of 

 menageries and museums appeared to him but dwarfs in 

 comparison with those of Northern Asia, and with their 

 size and strength seemed also to have lost much of their 

 beauty of form.'"* Certainly the cariboo of Nova 



* Speaking of the Tunguzes, Erman says : — " Tlie cliarm of their look 

 lies in their slim and active figure, as also in their constant connection with 



