40 THE TAIGA, OR CONIFEROUS 
antelopes, especially abundant in Africa, where deer are 
altogether absent. High up on mountains also, their 
place tends to be taken by sheep, goats, and allied 
forms. The Eurasiatic continent, which is rich in 
forests, is rich also in species of deer, but many of 
these are confined to tropical and subtropical regions, 
leaving relatively few to occur in the taiga proper. 
So far as these forms gc there is a close resemblance 
between the eastern and western halves of the 
continent. 
The fact that deer are characteristic animals in the 
taiga is in itself sufficient to enable us to draw certain 
conclusions in regard to the nature of the region. When 
ungulates occur in tropical forests they are mostly 
small animals, with narrow compressed bodies, which 
allow them to glide through the brushwood. Deer 
are not only big animals, but the broad, spreading 
antlers of the male would make rapid movement 
through a dense wood impossible for him. Some 
authorities regard these antlers as evidence that deer 
have only recently taken to wooded regions; their 
presence at least excludes the animals from very 
dense thickets. 
In both hemispheres there are taiga varieties of the 
reindeer, and both have elk or moose (Alces machilis). 
In the Asiatic taiga, the red deer (Cervus elaphus) 
occurs, with closely related forms of similar habits, 
such as the maral stag (C. maral). Though these forms 
do not occur in Canada, the wapiti (C. canadensis) is 
a nearly related species. America has in addition the 
Virginian deer (Cariacus virginianus), belonging to 
a group numerously represented further south, and 
distinguished by the great development and curious 
structure of the antlers. In the Asiatic taiga the 
