TWO WELL-DEFINED GROUPS OF CARIBOU 89 



and cost in that state seventy -five cents per hundred pounds. 

 A full-grown woodland Caribou consumes about seven pounds 

 daily. 



Although up to this date nine species of Caribou have been 

 described, there are but two well-defined groups, the Wood- 

 land and Barren Ground. In each of these, several species 

 have been described, but it must be admitted that so effec- 

 tually do they run together that it is not always an easy mat- 

 ter to distinguish them. 



In common with many members of the Deer Family 

 Caribou are distinguished chiefly by their antlers. But even 

 here great difficulties are encountered. With their many 

 tines and points, varying size and forms of palmation, their 

 antlers are subject to thousands of variations. As a result, 

 no two pairs are ever found exactly alike. Between the very 

 long, few-pointed and scarcely palmated antlers of the Green- 

 land Caribou, and the short, many-pointed and widely pal- 

 mated antlers of the mountain Caribou, every conceivable 

 form may be found. 



If ten pairs of adult antlers of each so-called species were 

 collected in its type locality, and the whole ninety mixed in 

 one heap, the utmost that even an expert could hope to ac- 

 complish without a heavy percentage of error would be to 

 separate the collection into two groups, one containing the 

 four species of Barren Ground Caribou, the other the five 

 Woodland species. 



It is useless to enter here into details regarding each of 

 these nine tentative species. Without a very large collection 

 of specimens and a prolonged study of them, it is impossible 



