292 MORROW—NOTES ON THE CARIBOU. 



animal in its spring or jump, does not now appear to me to 

 be tenable, and for my own part, I adopt Camper's statement, 

 and cannot say what their use may be ; but they are not scent 

 glands, if they were, it appears scarcely probable that as the buck 

 comes to maturity he would be deprived of the means of leaving 

 scent from his fore feet at the time when he most requires it, 

 without taking into consideration the fact that the tube only exists 

 in the fore feet of the male (up to an unknown age), or in the 

 female in a rudimentary state. 



The tubes in the hind feet of the Caribou are filled with a waxy 

 matter (those in the fore feet being only rudimentary, contain but 

 very little), and so are the tubes, one in each foot, of the Virginia 

 deer; but this is retained in them, owing to the shape. That of 

 the Caribou is rather wider in its mouth and of more equal diameter 

 to its lower end than that of the Virginia deer, which, at its open- 

 ing, is somewhat constricted and widens towards its centre; and the 

 tubes of these two animals retain this waxy matter or scales, while 

 the moose which, contrary to preconceived ideas (and this shows 

 how little we study our animals), also has the tubes in its feet, fully 

 developed in the hind, rudimentary in the fore feet, and if you will 

 look at the hind foot, kindly sent me by A. Chipman Smith, Esq., 

 Mayor of St. John, you will see that the tube is of a very different 

 shape from that of the other two animals, being in the hind feet, 

 very wide at the moulh, and gradually narrowing towards its lower 

 extremity ; from its shape it can retain but little, if any, of this 

 "waxy" matter, it being washed out by any swamp or by the 

 grass or plants through which it would pass. The disagreeable 

 smell ascribed to this matter is owing in a great measure to the 

 quantity of it which is contained in a narrow space. In general 

 terms it may be summed up that the Caribou buck when young 

 has the tubes in the fore feet in a rudimentary form, which instead 

 of passing upward and backward to the skin close to the dew claws, 

 as in the developed tubes of the hind feet, lie between the hollow of, 

 and nearly parallel with the bones of the feet, and that they are 

 gradually absorbed until certainly in the adult male they entirely 

 disappear. The doe has them also rudimentary in the fore feet; 



