72 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



invariably follow the same line of march, with which 

 the natives are acquainted, and where they await for 

 the herd either entering mountain denies or crossing 

 rivers, when they are surrounded and indiscriminately 

 slaughtered. 



They are also hunted on snow-shoes, after the 

 manner of moose. 



As cariboo are possessed of great vitality, they require 

 heavy hitting : so a rifle of large calibre ought to be 

 employed by the sportsman. 



Although there are upon the American continent two 

 very distinctly marked varieties of the reindeer, I can- 

 not adopt the idea of many travellers that, so con- 

 spicuous is their dissimilarity, that they are entitled to 

 be considered distinct species. 



We are all aware that difference of climate, local 

 causes, and abundance or paucity of food work wonder- 

 ful alteration on animal life more especially in regu- 

 lating their stature ; for instance, the moose deer of 

 Labrador seldom exceeds sixteen and a half hands, 

 while that of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick has 

 been known to attain twenty-one or even twenty-two 

 hands (vide Audubon). Now the grounds that are 

 taken for asserting that there are two species of cariboo 

 are exactly the same, and would equally justify the 

 decision that there are two species of elk. The wood- 

 land cariboo leads a life of comparative idleness among 

 the dense swamps and pine-clad hills, where food is 

 constantly to be found in abundance. The barren 

 cariboo, on the other hand, inhabits the immense flats 

 or mountain ridges close to the Arctic circle, where 

 vegetable growth is sparse, and little shelter afforded 

 from the biting cold winds and snows peculiar to so 



