38 THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



animals like the sheep and goats in the plains. 

 Every part of the wilderness has its appointed 

 tenants, though some overlapping inevitably 

 arises out of temporary changes of home on the 

 part of migrants. Thus, though nothing seems 

 to attract the wild sheep down to the plains, 

 we find all manner of lowland game, like the 

 bison and the elephant, climbing thousands of 

 feet into the hills in search of cooler weather, 

 fresh pastures and a respite from biting insects, 

 which, if not wholly unknown, are at least less 

 aggressive at the higher levels. The tiger is 

 also encountered at an altitude of six or seven 

 thousand feet, though with what object it 

 performs such journeys is not apparent. 



The manner in which many of these creatures 

 have developed certain features, among which 

 various forms of foot are conspicuous, is also of 

 the greatest interest. Thus we find the camel 

 and giraffe with just the type of spreading foot 

 suited to rapid and sure movement over the 

 stony soil of the desert, and the caribou trusting 

 to its splay feet to bear it at top speed over the 

 snow and ice, so that it can outdistance even 

 Indians on their snow-shoes without fear of 

 crashing through the frozen crust in the manner 

 so often fatal to the moose of the same region. 



Speaking generally, and with the aforemen- 

 tioned allowance for wanderings, we expect to 

 find types like the tiger, leopard, deer, bison, 



