112 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 



found to exist, which will remove every doubt which may be still 

 entertained as to their specific differences. For myself, I do not 

 believe it possible for simple varieties of the same species with 

 migratory habits to occupy contiguous territories, and still main- 

 tain differences so pronounced and so constant as we find between 

 these two kinds of reindeer. When the comparative anatomist 

 shall have taken the subject in hand and carefully studied both, 

 he will probably find many similitudes not yet noted ; so too he . 

 will probably find differences not yet imagined. 



We have many facts stated which will subsequently appear in 

 the diffei'ent divisions of this work, and especially " The Chase," 

 which tend strongly to show that the eye of the Barren-ground 

 Caribou is duller than that of any of the other deer, and that this 

 defect is not compensated by so sensitive a smell as is possessed 

 by the others. They moreover show that it is a most witless an- 

 imal, easily dazed and confused by danger or fright, without strat- 

 agem or the capacity to evade its enemies. It seems more likely 

 to run into danger than to avoid it, although the way of escape 

 may be plainly open before it. In all this it is the very reverse 

 of the woodland caribou, except that the latter has an unreliable 

 vision, although not to the extent of the former. Even the moose 

 is hardly more fertile in resources to elude pursuit, or escape 

 from danger than the woodland caribou, and it is a proud tri- 

 umph for the sportsman who takes one. 



Of the endurance of the smaller species, I am not sufficiently 

 advised to speak understandingly, but from the accounts given of 

 their capture I am led to tlie conclusion that they are prostrated 

 by a wound which most other deer would survive for a consider- 

 able time. 



They have a foolish curiosity fully equal to that of our ante- 

 lope, of which hunters know how to take advantage, and by 

 which the animal is often beguiled to destruction. 



The young have been often caught and tamed, and like the 

 other deer they soon lose all fear of man and become interesting 

 pets, but when they have been removed from their native boreal 

 regions they have soon perished. 



