extant in any museum in tin- world, and |>erhaps larger than all combined, but it 

 represents satisfactorily only a few of the many forms ol" this polymorphic group. 



The (.'aribou group ranges across the continent from Newfoundland and Green- 

 land to tlu- extreme western limit of the Peninsula of Alaska, and from about the 

 northern border of the United States to the Arctic coast: they haunt not only the 

 northern woodlands and the' <>]>en tundras, but ascend to the treeless summits of 

 all the principal mountain ranges. Their distribution, however, is not continuous 

 but is broken up into numerous disconnected areas. They are highly plastic, 

 yielding readily to the varied conditions of environment, often supplemented 

 by isolation. f> which they are subjected. They are also everywhere the prey of 

 man, being the main dependence of the Indians and Eskimo for food and cloth- 

 ing, of the whalers along the Arctic coast for fresh provisions, and of the miners 

 and settlers in the newly developed mining fields of the north, and they are also 

 favorite quarry of the big game globe-trotter. For this reason their early prac- 

 tical extermination is certain, since every year witnesses, at many ]x>ints, a 

 marked restriction of their ranges and a lamentable diminution of their numbers. 

 In order to determine the number and relationship of the numerous geographical 



49. MR. STONE'S CAMP IN THE NORTHERN ROCKIES. 



From a photograph of the camp occupied by Mr. Stone's party during seven weeks' stay 

 in the Rocky Mountains, in latitude about 66 30' N., from which thi-y hunted an area nearly 

 50 miles square. 



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