306 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



bou, it seems quite as likely that Jacobi (1931) is correct in 

 calling the forms of both merely races of a single circumboreal 

 species, Rangifer tarandus. 



The Greenland caribou, or reindeer, is believed to be derived 

 from North America by way of the islands lying to the west- 

 ward, and in that way to have reached the Greenland coast. 

 Since, however, Peary's caribou now occupies the northern 

 Arctic Archipelago, one must assume either that both have 

 since differentiated from a common stock or that the Greenland 

 animal arrived in some other way. 



Formerly the Greenland caribou was found over the whole 

 outer land fringing the ice cap of this country, except, ap- 

 parently, the northern part of the coast. During the last 

 century and a half constant hunting on the part of both 

 Eskimo and white population has greatly reduced their num- 

 bers, so that at the present time they are found only locally in 

 the areas most suitable to their needs on the southwest and 

 west coasts but are gone from the eastern coast. Jensen 

 (1928) has given some interesting data on the past and present 

 distribution. These caribou were frequent on the southern- 

 most part of the west coast even as late as the end of the 

 eighteenth century, but they disappeared from this southern 

 tip of the peninsula during the early part of the nineteenth 

 century. Nevertheless, a good many still remain not far to 

 the northward, near Narssalik (south of Frederikshaab) . 

 The best hunting district is a little farther to the northwest, 

 Sukkertoppen, at latitude 65 N., where "even now" about a 

 thousand animals are killed annually. The Godthaab district, 

 slightly to the south, is also a favored habitat, where Jensen 

 says about 600 are taken yearly. The present distribution of 

 these caribou extends still farther northwestward to the 

 southern part of the Upernavik district, in about latitude 73, 

 so that the range of the animal now is mainly limited to the 

 stretch of coast covering about 800 miles from the southern 

 Frederikshaab district to the Upernavik area. They no longer 

 occur, however, on Disko Island about in the center of this 

 stretch. Jensen states that in former times these animals 

 extended their range still farther north to the Thule district, 

 "at least as far north as Rensselaer Bay (lat. 78 40' N.)," 

 where now they have "practically disappeared." Neverthe- 

 less, a remnant still persists here and apparently forms the 



