104 BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA. 



Although the European Stag and Scandinav an Elk are 

 represented in America by their more ponderous cousins, 

 the Wapiti and the Moose, Europe, or any otlier part of the 

 Old World, has no i3arallel to our Barren-ground Caribou. 

 The Woodland Caribou, in almost every point, is iden- 

 tical with the European Reindeer; but it would seem that no 

 other part of the world produces an animal sufficiently 

 similar in form, size, and generic characteristics to our 

 Arctic Caribou as to warrant the determination of an 

 identity of species. This I consider a very strong argu- 

 ment in favor of the very generally received conclusion 

 arrived at by distinguished naturalists, that the Barren- 

 ground Caribou is a distinct species of the genus Cermdce. 

 Constitutionally formed and fitted to inhabit a country 

 peculiarly suited to his nature and wants, he stands, as it 

 were, alone, the cervine lord of a territory as yet untrodden 

 by any otlier branch of the great deciduous-horned family 

 to which he belongs. The Mule Deer and the smaller 

 animal, the Black- tail, are much more similar in general 

 features than are the two varieties of Caribou, both of 

 which differ from the Virginia Deer, not the least distinct 

 of such difference being in the shape of the antlers and the 

 style of their growth. In the Virginia species the prongs 

 grow from the posterior side of the beam, while in the 

 antlers of the Mule and the Black-tail they spring from the 

 anterior. Inhabiting such a distant and inhospitable por- 

 tion of America, it is but natural to conclude that there is 

 still much to learn about this interesting member of the 

 Deer family. When he shall have disappeared from the 

 fastnesses of his Arctic habitat — if the time shall ever 

 come — the aboriginal inhabitants of that section of America, 

 whose existence mainly depends upon him, in all liutnan 

 probability shall also have disappeared from all but the 

 page of history. 



If I have written one sentence upon any portion of the 

 history of the Reindeer of America; if I have been fort- 

 unate enough to be able to contribute one thought which 

 is calculated to amuse or entertain my large family of rela- 



