REINDEER FOR LABRADOR 259 
land. These deer are of the same species as our domestic 
reindeer (Cervus tarandus), though of slightly different 
varieties, the barren-land caribou and the Canadian wood- 
land caribou being about the same size, but both of rather 
smaller growth than the Newfoundland woodland variety. 
This difference might reasonably be accredited to ages of 
access to a superior food-supply, and this has been one 
factor to influence us in keeping temporarily our small 
experimental herd on the south side of the Straits of Belle 
Isle. The herds in the Canadian barren-land are phe- 
nomenally large. The photographs taken by Mr. J. B. 
Tyrrell show interminable serried ranks on the march, re- 
sembling with their long, slight horns a vast army of spear- 
men. In 1909 a herd of half a million of these barren-land 
caribou was reported from Dawson City as travelling along 
the Tanana River beyond Sixty-mile River. The _ pro- 
cession was described as twenty miles wide. 
It seems to have been shown that deer, freed from the 
fear of man, have a great predilection for associating with 
domestic cattle. In New England, once they learn they 
have nothing to fear from man, deer will come down among 
the cattle almost into the farm-yard. Thus, the further 
hope that the young of the wild species might be cut out, 
corralled, and raised with a domestic herd without any fear 
of their again returning to the wild, seems to be assured. 
Also it has been shown that the two varieties can inter- 
breed successfully. On one occasion a Newfoundland cari- 
bou joined our herd; it so closely resembled our own deer 
that an English friend tried to knock up the rifle of the 
Lapp herder who was shooting it from twenty yards away. 
Again, two of these same caribou joined a section of the 
