REINDEER NOT DOMESTICATED IN AMERICA. 73 



high a latitude. So great often are the straits the 

 latter variety are submitted to from the inhospitable 

 nature of their habitat, that in some districts they are 

 compelled to become migratory to obtain the neces- 

 saries of life. Is it, then, to be wondered at, that 

 there should be a marked difference in size between 

 the inhabitant of the sheltered forest and the wanderer 

 upon the barren upland waste ? 



Another strange circumstance has often struck me 

 viz., that although the reindeer has for ages been 

 domesticated in Europe and Asia, employed both to 

 draw and carry freights, as well as provide milk for 

 the inhabitants of Lapland and the Siberian wastes, 

 no attempt ever appears to have been made in the 

 New World to utilize their capacities. This is the 

 more surprising when we consider that only a few 

 years back Russia possessed a large portion of the 

 north-west angle of the Continent of America, a 

 country literally swarming with wild cariboo, from the 

 herds of which no difficulty would be found to make 

 captives. Still, such has never been done with a view 

 of utilizing their labour, although in her possessions 

 across the Behring Sea reindeer are in constant use 

 among the sparse population that inhabits the north 

 Asiatic slopes that margin the Pacific. Between 

 America and Asia, up in these high latitudes, for many 

 years an extensive trade has been carried on in furs, 

 so that the inhabitants of the one continent must have 

 intercourse with, and a knowledge of the ways of life 

 of the other. ' 



Although the reindeer easily becomes domesticated, 

 and when in that state is no more difficult to herd than 

 sheep, still, when in the wild state, particularly if near 



