EFFECTS UPON ANIMAL LIFE 345 



ference above the bez tines. The right antler possessed also 

 a back tine, a feature seldom found in the barren-ground race. 

 Or take the fine extremity of an antler found in the 

 Broch of Keiss in Caithness: of this Professor Richard 

 Owen, after careful comparison and examination, wrote 

 I have not seen any antlers of the Red Deer showing so much flattening or 

 compression of the " beam " as in this specimen. I believe them to be parts 

 of the antler of a large reindeer or variety called ' Carabou.' 



While writing these words Owen seems to have had in mind 

 the large woodland form known in Canada by that name. 



There are difficulties in the way of reaching a definite 

 conclusion regarding the exact status of the Reindeer races, 

 for antlers show considerable variation, and the question of 

 relationships from this point of view has not been satisfac- 

 torily solved. But I think it is justifiable to regard the 

 Scottish Reindeer as different from the extreme barren- 

 ground type with clean cut antlers and pronged tines, and 

 as tending towards the woodland type, although the antlers 

 do not attain the luxuriance of palmation of the most highly 

 developed woodland forms of the Caribou. The modern 

 form of Scandinavian Reindeer with palmated brow and bez 

 tines and well developed back tines, seems to me to belong 

 to this intermediate type tending to the woodland variety, 

 and to bear a close resemblance to the Scottish examples of 

 the interglacial beds and peat-bogs. 



If the Scottish Reindeer was a woodland variety, as I 

 have suggested, then the presence or absence of woods 

 must have had a close bearing on its welfare, for although 

 the barren-ground form may enter the domain of the wood- 

 land race during its winter migration southwards, the latter 

 finds in the woods its permanent home. The destruction of 

 woodland, therefore, is likely to have tended to its exter- 

 mination. Neolithic man had little influence on the forest, 

 and the Reindeer outlived him; but the Bronze and Iron 

 Ages, with their demand for fuel for smelting, began a 

 devastation which each succeeding age intensified, so that 

 in the twelfth century, when Scottish laws were already 

 endeavouring to conserve the forest, the last reference occurs 

 to living Reindeer in Scotland. 



The evidence suggests that the destruction of the forest 

 was an important factor in reducing the numbers of the 



