UNDER THE POLAR STAR 101 



grow to give him shelter. In summer he loves cool 

 marshes, where he feeds on plant roots and fresh tree 

 buds ; in winter he journeys to high ground and paws 

 the snow away to find grass, moss, or lichens, so he is 

 always restless, moving about more than his stunted 

 brother of the Barren Grounds, and we must often look 

 far and wide to find him. Ah, he is a fourfoot built to 

 stand the cold, and shod for snow striding ! Look at 

 his picture. See the strange antlers, both palmed and 

 tined, branching downward as gnarled old trees, no two 

 pairs growing quite alike. Even the female Caribou, 

 or, as she is called in this tribe, the cow, wears small, 

 spiked horns. See his long, stout hair that makes a 

 thatch like straw to keep the wet and cold out of his 

 undercoat. He is not pretty, this Caribou ; ah, no ! his 

 face and neck look faded, and he is at best a dingy sort 

 of brown with a lighter colored rump. His tail is lined 

 with white, and, when raised, becomes his signal flag of 

 danger. See the foot gear he wears ; is it not wonder- 

 ful ? Two hoofed, spreading toes, curved inward, with 

 two more behind, all edged with stiff hairs. When he 

 plants his feet his hind legs bend toward the ground, 

 making long snow-shoes such as no other deer wears. 

 The palm-horned Moose, the largest of our deer, sinks 

 in the snow, and after much running, falls exhausted. 

 The Elk, the king of all his tribe, has small, sharp- 

 edged hoofs ; but this, the third from the largest, the 

 awkward Caribou, wears such snow-shoes that, if he 

 were tamed and trained, he too, like his Reindeer 

 cousin, would be a useful beast of burden in our bleak, 

 north country. 



" He does not come ; whistling will not bring him ; 



