ORIGIN OF WAPITI DEER 69 



gigantic glaciers during the Ice Age, exclaims " this is no 

 vain hypothesis or speculation founded on uncertain data, 

 no mere conjecture which the light of future discoveries may 

 explode. The evidence is so clear and so overwhelmingly 

 convincing that we cannot resist the inevitable conclusion."* 



The Canadian wapiti deer is a typical example of a recent 

 Asiatic immigrant. In some previous cases it was doubtful 

 whether the species referred to was of truly American or 

 Asiatic origin. Again in others we were able to trace a 

 distinctly American ancestry, but not beyond the more recent 

 deposits. 



I want now to mention an interesting creature whose 

 lineage we can follow through several geological ages, and 

 whose most remote ancestors had, as we might say, not 

 a drop of foreign blood in their veins. The species I allude 

 to is the Canadian tree porcupine (Erethizon dorsatus). It 

 is in many respects a most striking and remarkable animal. 



In Europe, in fact everywhere in the Old World, porcu- 

 pines are ground animals, and they usually dig their 

 burrows in the earth. The American porcupines differ from 

 them in many important anatomical characters. They, more- 

 over, all live on trees, and generally have prehensile tails. 

 We have here two entirely distinct groups, as among the deer, 

 though externally all porcupines have a strong family like- 

 ness. As far as trees grow right up to the barren-grounds the 

 Canadian porcupine was once abundant, but yielding whole- 

 some food and being easily killed it has been exterminated in 

 many districts. Whenever it is undisturbed it is plentiful, feed- 

 ing on leaves and bark, and it seems entirely unaffected by 

 climatic extremes. The Canadian tree porcupine lives in 

 Canada from the Rocky Mountains in the west to southern 

 Labrador in the east, and enters the United States in Maine 

 and New Hampshire. Formerly it occurred all along the 

 Alleghenies, through Pennsylvania into Virginia and Ken- 

 tucky to Arkansas. In these southern parts of its range it 

 no doubt fell an easy prey to the Indian hunters who were 

 always fond of its flesh. The destruction of forests on the 

 arrival of the white man hastened its northward retreat. 



* Geikie, James, "The Great Ice Age," pp. 6768. 



