138 ANIMALS IN MENAGERIES. 



rally known. But the manners of the American races 

 have only been furnished to us by Dr. Richardson. 

 His observations^ therefore^ possess both novelty and 

 value^ as being the result of a long residence, and of 

 attentive observation made,, in the native regions of 

 these interesting animals. 



The large size of the woodland reindeer, or Caribou 

 of the American voyagers, distinguishes it, at first sight, 

 from that race or variety which lives in the plains. 

 Although so much superior in size, its horns are much 

 smaller ; and even wdien in good condition, its flesh is 

 vastly inferior. Its geographic range, as observed by 

 Dr. Richardson, is confined to a stripe of low, primitive, 

 woody rocks, about 100 miles wide, and nearly as many 

 broad, between the shores of Hudson's Bay and Lake 

 Superior. Contrary to the other race, they traverse to 

 the southward in spring. These migrations are per- 

 formed in herds of such immense numbers, that they 

 will sometimes occupy several hours in crossing the river 

 near York Factory, in a crowded phalanx : this takes 

 place in May ; they pass the summer on the marshy 

 shores of James Bay, and return northward in Septem- 

 ber. Their numbers, on these occasions, may be judged 

 of, when Mr. Hutchins asserts that he had seen eighty 

 head of deer brought in one day to York Factory, and 

 many others were refused for want of salt to preserve 

 the flesh : the natives, in fact, continued to destroy the 

 poor animals merely for the sake of their skins. The 

 same writer says that the fawns, when taken young, 

 soon become as tame as pet lambs. 



A peculiarity in the anatomical structure of the buck, 

 noticed by Mr. Hutchins, deserves investigation ; it is a 

 peculiar bag, or cyst, in the lower part of the neck, about 

 the size of a crown piece, filled with fine flaxen 

 hair, neatly coiled round to the thickness of an inch ; 

 it then communicates to an opening through the skin 

 placed near the head. Dr. Richardson remarks upon this 

 fact, that Camper found a membranaceous cyst in the 

 European reindeer, above the thyroid cartilage, and 



