SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 183 



somewhat intcrnKHlialo character. 'J'he fossil remains of the 

 Woodland Caribou denote a larger animal, and this contrast in 

 size holds good to-day between the existing species of the two 

 groups. 



DISTRIBUTIOX OF THE VARIOUS SPECIES. 



At the beginning of the glacial period there was a land con- 

 nection between Greenland, Spitzbergen, and Norway, which was 

 in turn joined to Scotland and to Ireland, thence across England 

 to the Continent ; and it was over this land connection that the 

 Arctic Barren Ground Caribou found its way into Western 

 Europe. At that period, those portions of Russia lying between 

 the Black Sea and the White Sea and the major part of Sweden 

 were entirely submerged, as well as a large part of northern and 

 eastern Germany. This condition prevented the spread of this 

 group into Eastern Europe at that time. Its extreme eastern 

 limit was near Berlin^ where in one of the oldest Pleistocene de- 

 posits fossil remains of the Barren Ground Caribou have been 

 found. At a much later period, probably during the interglacial 

 phase of the glacial period, a land connection was established 

 across Russia, and an invasion of Siberian mammals took place, 

 bringing with it the Woodland Caribou. This animal pushed as 

 far west as England, the north and east of France, but never 

 reached either Scandinavia or Ireland, the latter having become 

 detached from E;igland at that time. 



In the lands lying south of the Baltic this Woodland type 

 abounded, increasing in numbers toward the east, but vanished 

 before the historic period. Some member of the genus, probably 

 the existing reindeer, persisted in the forests of Northern Europe 

 until comparatively recent times, and w'ere known to the Romans 

 as inhabitants of the German forests. In fact, there is some 

 slight evidence of the existence of reindeer in Caithness, Scot- 

 land, as late as the twelfth century. 



All fossil remains found in Siberia and Eastern Europe are 

 of the Woodland Caribou type, but all existing species found in 

 Europe or Siberia to-day belong to the Barren Ground group, 

 with the possible exception of a race in eastern Siberia, which 

 may be found to belong to the Woodland group. 



It thus appears that the separation of the two groups, the 

 Barren Ground Caribou and the Woodland Caribou, dates from 



