48 KELIQUI^E AQUITANICJE. 



tains and all the interior parts of British Columbia north of a certain latitude. 

 This leads me to draw your attention to the close correspondence, in point of 

 latitude, of its former habitat in Europe, proved by the recent developments in 

 Dordogne, with the localities to which it is indigenous on the Atlantic coasts of 

 America that is, about lat. 43 ; south of which I do not think it was found in 

 America at least not far. Upon the Pacific coast, however, the Reindeer or 

 Caribou takes a more northern range. It may occasionally come somewhat further 

 south than 49 in the interior, along the borders of the Rocky Mountain range ; 

 but my own experience would lead me to place that (49) as the limit that is, the 

 limit imposed by the various exigencies of its nature. Nearer the coast I should 

 be inclined to limit its southern range by lat. 51, or thereabout. In part 

 explanation of this disparity, I may remind you that there is a difference of winter 

 temperature in favour of the Pacific coast, as compared with the Atlantic, 

 equivalent to at least 10 of latitude. Reindeer have never, in America, been 

 herded in a domestic state, as is done by the Laplanders and others of Northern 

 Europe ; nor are they by the natives employed as beasts of draught. They exist 

 only in their wild and natural condition. The late Lord Selkirk, actively in- 

 terested at the time in the affairs of the Hudson's Bay Company and the Red 

 River Colony, introduced some Norwegian experts with the view of employing 

 the Reindeer largely for winter transport. The project, however, did not result 

 satisfactorily, owing to various local causes. In one of the District-reports to the 

 Council of the Hudson's Bay Company sitting at Norway House, some years ago, 

 I noticed that the Officers of H.M.S. ' Plover,' had been, as they reported, when 

 wintering in Wainwright Inlet, supplied by the natives with " abundance of 

 Reindeer venison from their herds in the mountains." But I do not doubt that 

 there was a misapprehension here, and that what the sailors supposed to be the 

 yield of domesticated herds, corresponding with their preconceptions of the 

 Laplanders &c., were really the wild deer of the forest u . So with the Germans ; 

 and so, inferentially, with the people of ancient Aquitania ; for there is nothing 

 to authorize the supposition that they (the Germans) tamed the Reindeer for 

 domestic purposes, but only hunted it. Small cattle, sheep, and goats, with 

 horses, composed their riches their pecora and armenta. The Reindeer, the 

 Urus, the Elk, the Boar, &c. were J 'era; of the forest. Indeed I very much 

 question whether the Laps, Fins, &c. domesticated the Reindeer until a com- 

 paratively late date warned thereto by necessity arising from experience of the 

 fugitive nature of the resource in a wild state, exemplified in the case of the 

 southern races, and encouraged to it by the peculiar facilities and advantages 





