THE RAIN-DEER. 355 



rain-deer's horns, fome of which extend back- 

 ward from the head as far as the crupper, and 

 project forward in antlers of more than a foot 

 long. The large foiTil horns found in different 

 places, and particularly in Ireland, appear to 

 have belonged to the rain-deer fpecies. Mr Co- 

 linfon informed me that he had feen fome 'of 

 thefe foiTil horns with an interval of ten feet be- 

 tween their extremities, and with brow antlers, 

 like thofe of the rain-deer. 



It is to this fpecies, therefore, and not to that 

 of the elk, that the folhl bones of the animal 

 called moufe-detr by the Britilh are to be refer- 

 red. We mull: acknowledge, however, that no 

 rain-deer now exift of fuch magnitude and 

 ftrength as to carry horns fo long and mafly as 

 thole found in a foflil ftate in Ireland, as well 

 as in feveral other parts of Europe, and even in 

 North America ** 



Befides, I knew only one fpecies of rain-deer, 

 to which I referred the caribou of America, and 

 the Greenland fallow-deer, defcribed and engra- 

 ven by Mr Edwards : And it is not long fince I 

 was informed, that there were two fpecies, or 

 rather two varieties, the one much larger than 

 the other. The rain-deer, of which I have gi- 

 ven a figure, is the fmall kind, and probably the 



Z 2 fame 



* In North America, we find horns which muft have be- 

 longed to an animal of a prodigious magnitude. Similar 

 horns are found in Ireland. They are branched, &c. ; Voyage 

 de P. Kahu, torn. 2. p. 435. 



