CHAPTER XIX 

 THE REINDEER AND THE CARIBOU. 



THE REINDEER — ITS LIFE IN NORTHERN EUROPE — ITS LIFE IN SIBERIA — ITS LIFE WHEN DOMES- 

 TICATED — ITS VALUE — THE CARIBOU — MODES OF HUNTING IT. 



IN the case of the Reindeer, as with the Elk, naturalists are not 

 agreed as to whether the American variety attains to the dignity 

 of a separate species or not. Wallace, and other high authori- 

 ties assign but one species to the genus which we are now about to 

 describe. 



GENUS TARANDUS. 



In this genus the animals of both sexes possess antlers, the arrange- 

 ment of which is very characteristic. From the principal stem, which is 

 round and short, spring two branches of flattened shape, the longest of 

 which tends upward with various twists terminating in an indefinite 

 number of points ; the other, more moderate in size, stretches horizon- 

 tally over the muzzle. The hoofs are very broad and long ; the head is 

 wide and ox-like, but there is no muffle, and the nostrils open in the 

 midst of the hair. The legs, although finely made, are less slender than 

 those of the stag. The feet are covered all over with stiff hair, even 

 on the under parts, an arrangement which facilitates the animal's tread 

 on ice, or icy snow. Its coat is rough, of a grayish-brown color, and is 

 long under the throat, becoming in the winter woolly in texture, and 

 often white in color. The eye of the Reindeer is protected from the 

 blinding glare of the snow by a third nictitating eyelid, which, at the 

 animal's will, covers the whole eye. 



The Reindeer may be described as the most valuable of the Ccrvidce. 

 Whole tribes depend on it for their existence and well-being, and it is 

 more necessary to them than the horse or ox to ourselves. 



