ORDER RUMINANTIA. 79 



snags, and yet they are not a foot in length. They stand 

 about three inches asunder, and more on the forehead than 

 in the Elk, with five snags forward, deeply indented into 

 the blade and the summits forked : their texture is thin 

 and light, and they must have been borne by an animal 

 probably not larger than the Fallow-deer. It is not impos- 

 sible that this is the Kistuhe, or the Little Elk of the rocky 

 mountain Indians, which may be an intermediate between 

 the true Elk and the Rein-deer; this would correspond 

 with the opinion of Baron Cuvier, lately offered on this 

 very pair; viz., that they are the growth of a Rein-deer, 

 an opinion which he supports by shewing several horns of 

 rein-deer, approaching in form to these ; but it does not 

 appear that the specimens so produced belong to the Euro- 

 pean species : we believe them all American, and therefore 

 may be of the same animal in a junior state. 



The Rangiferine Group. 



The Rein-deer. {Cervus Tarandus, Lin. Caribou of 

 Canada ?) The ancients were vaguely acquainted with this 

 animal through the accounts which they received from Scy- 

 thians and Germans. They asserted that its colour changed 

 with the objects it fixed eyes on; that it equalled the Ox in 

 size, and had only one horn branched in many directions: 

 but if these tales were partial misrepresentations or alto- 

 gether fabulous, there is no doubt that the name Tarandus 

 was Teutonic, and a mere transposition of the present, with 

 a Latin termination. Tarand, Thier-rand, Ranthier, Ren- 

 thier, offer a legitimate derivation ; especially as the Greeks 

 and Romans took the word from the mouth of barbarians, 

 whose language was without letters, and, therefore, very ir- 

 regular in pronunciation. 



The adult male of this species in a wild state is the size 

 of a stag, or even superior, but the female is less than the 

 hind, and the tame races, particularly of Lapland, are not 



