THE CARIBOU. 75 



do not lie, as it were, in bands parallel to the equator, 

 but that the isothermal lines recede from the pole in 

 the interior of continents, and advance towards it as we 

 approach the shores. It follows, that the further any 

 northern animal is naturally removed from the amelio- 

 rating climatic influence of the ocean, the more extended 

 may be its range in a southerly direction." 



In former ages the reindeer appears to have ex- 

 tended very nearly as far south as this in Western 

 Europe also. There is no evidence of its having ac- 

 tually crossed the Pyrenees or Alps ; but remains have 

 been discovered at no great distance from the northern 

 base of the former chain, and vast numbers of others 

 have been traced thence through France, Great Britain, 

 and Ireland. 



In the caves of Bruniquel in Southern France, the 

 Vicomte de Lastic found in a group of cave-remains 

 immense numbers of those of reindeer, which had evi- 

 dently served for food to the human denizens of the 

 cavern, whose relics in skulls, bones, worked flints, and 

 horns were afterwards secured by Professor Owen for 

 the British Museum. In many of the caves of the 

 Dordogne quantities of remains of C. tarandus have also 

 been brought to light ; in one instance an artificial 

 flint weapon was found deeply fixed or embedded in a 

 vertebra of one of this species. 



