198 APPENDIX 



moose, the female osborni caribou has horns, though they 

 are much smaller than those in the male of the species. At 

 all times, except the rutting season, which is early in Sep- 

 tember, the older bulls are found apart from the females, 

 but in September the bulls fight for the leadership of a herd 

 composed of a number of cows, calves, and yearling bulls. 



The caribou are invariably found above timber line, upon 

 the high tundra-covered mountains, never coming down be- 

 low the altitude of the low scrub willow bushes upon which 

 they feed, unless to cross some river bottom between two 

 mountain ranges. In summer the writer has observed them 

 far into the heart of the St. Elias range along the glaciers, 

 and has frequently seen them upon the snow fields and 

 crests of the higher mountains, usually frequented only by 

 sheep. When the winter snows begin to deepen they move 

 out in separate herds to the lower tundra mountains, where 

 they can paw through the snow for the underlying white 

 moss, which is their only winter diet. 



These animals are exceedingly timid, but their timidity 

 seems to be actuated through their sense of smell rather than 

 through sight or hearing; mere noise and rifle shots disturb 

 them but little, as the writer, unseen by them, fired his 

 rifle frequently at range of one hundred yards, without even 

 disturbing the feeding animals, but rifle shot combined with 

 sight of hunter usually causes a mild stampede in the oppo- 

 site direction. On the other hand, mere sight of the hun- 

 ter instead of arousing fear seems at times to beget a 

 friendly curiosity. It has often happened that these animals 

 have observed the writer traveling sometimes on foot, some- 

 times on horse, and the caribou have approached quite close, 

 circling about and trying to get to the windward. Buit 



