328 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 



One set of the illustrations of antlers on the European Reindeer, 

 are from a living pair in the Zoological Gai'dens at Berlin, and 

 the others are faithful copies of the antlers of a male and female 

 wild Reindeer, which I brought from Arctic Norway, procured in 

 Tromsoe (see ante, p. 203, and joos^, 329, 830). I have not illus- 

 trated any extreme cases of palmatation of the European variety, 

 for the simple reason that I have not met with them, though I 

 have examined many collections in Europe ; still I have no doubt 

 they exist, though far short of those copied from Captain Hardy's 

 valuable work. Those presented I believe fairly illustrate the 

 average antler of the European variety, and by comparison the 

 reader will readily appreciate the difference in structure which 

 my investigations teach me exists. 



There are two other peculiarities common to these varieties 

 and not observed on the antlers of the other deer. The first is 

 the exceedingly small burr, which frequently in some portions of 

 the circumference is quite wanting, and in no part is ever promi- 

 nent ; and the other is that the beam is never round, but its sur- 

 face presents rounded angles and partially fiat spaces between 

 them, approaching nearer to a triangular form than any other 

 figure. 



In size the European Reindeer, whether wild or tame, is appre- 

 ciably smaller than our Woodland Caribou, though much larger 

 than the Barren-ground Caribou. There is as great a difference 

 in size between the American and the European varieties of the 

 Reindeer as there is between the moose and the elk, the differ- 

 ence in both cases being in favor of the American varieties. Thus 

 we see that in the American varieties we have the most palmated 

 antlers and the largest size. 



The Woodland Caribou in exceptional cases attain to a very 

 large size ; and from the best examination I have been able to 

 give the subject, I think it safe to say that they average one 

 quarter to one third larger than the wild Reindeer in Europe. 

 Captain Hardy supposed that they attain their best development 

 and perfection on the Atlantic side of the continent ; but further 

 investigations I think tend strongly to show that they are quite 

 as large on the western side of the continent. 



In Northeastern Asia the Reindeer ai'e represented, as we have 

 elsewhere seen, as attaining an extraordinary size in domestica- 

 tion ; and as the experiments in Western Europe do not show that 

 man's direct care and dominion over them have tended to in- 

 crease their development, we may fairly presume that the same 



