416 APPENDIX. 



it collects on the outside of the skin in the form of very small scales, such as 

 ■would be left by minute portions of varnish. Although Mr. Morrow did not 

 see the animal use this so called " gland," yet his Indian hunter saw a doe 

 Caribou use it in this way: when she had finished urinating (she squats 

 in the act almost exactly like a sheep) she rubbed these glands together, 

 leaving true scent behind her for a short distance. When creeping moose 

 or Caribou, this scent floating in the air had often been with him a sub- 

 ject of inquiry, and he had very little doubt but that this was at least one 

 way in which these glands are used, and in confirmation he mentioned that 

 the dogs, at one time openly used for hunting moose, did not often take the 

 scent of that animal from the snow, but by standing upon their hind legs as 

 if it had been rubbed from glands as described. The point was merely men- 

 tioned in the hope that some gentleman present would be able to throw some 

 light upon it, or keep it in mind when an opportunity offered for observation, 

 confirmatory or otherwise. 



A little further down the leg, on the outside at the hair parting, he showed 

 the " metatarsal gland," which had been looked for during a long period by 

 Dr. Gilpin, Mr. T. J. Egan, and himself in answer to an inquiry from the Hon- 

 orable Judge Caton. This was the first they had ever seen, and may probably 

 be taken as a mark of adult age. It was afterwards found in the old doe, but 

 not so perfectly marked, possibly because the doe v.as killed in February, the 

 buck in December. 



Attention was also drawn to the tubes in the feet of the Caribou, which first 

 attracted the notice of Dr. Gilpin from inquiries made by Judge Caton. Dr. 

 Gilpin as well as others thought that they were only to be found in the hind 

 feet, and the discovery of them in the fore feet of the Caribou is due entirely 

 to Dr. Sommers. 



Camper says, speaking of these tubes: "In addition to the peculiarities of 

 the reindeer of which I have just spoken, I have discovered besides something 

 very singular in the hind feet of this animal, that is to say, a deep sheath be- 

 tween the skin at the place where the dew-claws are united together, of the 

 size of the barrel of a quill, running deeply as far as the point where the dew- 

 claws are articulated with the bone of the metatarsus. These sheaths were 

 filled internally with long hairs, and a yellow oleaginous matter proceeded 

 from them, the odor of which was not very agreeable. I have not found these 

 sheaths in the fore feet. It was not possible for me to discover the use of 

 them, inasmuch as the heat of the summer obliged me to remove the flesh from 

 the skeleton." And further on he says that in another reindeer he found no 

 tube in the hind foot, but one very apparent in the fore foot, and again, he 

 found tubes in the hind feet, but none in the fore feet. " So that I am not able 

 to determine anything very exactly on this subject." 



In the skin of one of the hind legs of the old buck, the bones of which had 

 been removed for the purpose, the tube was shown (the tube of the other foot 

 had been used in experiments), and also a number of other specimens of tubes 

 from the Caribou, one from the Virginia deer, and the hind foot of a moose, con- 

 taining a tube. In the skin of the fore feet of the old buck Caribou, also exhib- 

 ited, there was no appearance of the tubes, they had been absorbed. By many, 

 Mr. Morrow said, these tubes were considered to be scent " glands." Camper 

 evidently did not think them so, although he mentions that the skin of the 

 hind as well as the fore feet " were sprinkled with glandules which probably 



