MAMMALIA 



341 



the most northerly of the ungulates. The caribou is an odd-looking animal, 

 with thick long legs and with hoofs so expanded and flattened as to make 

 good snow-shoes. Its covering is warm and consists of a "coat of fine wool- 

 like hair, through which grows the coarse hair of the rain coat." It feels 

 like a thick felt mat. The food is moss and lichen. These animals migrate 

 southward in great herds, though they are not known beyond the Churchill 

 River. In spring they return to the most northern headlands, where they 

 bear their young. Upon these migrations the savages who live in these 



*<> 



Fig. 277.— Rocky Mountain elk. (Farmer's Bulletin No. 330, U. S. Dept. 

 of Agriculture.) 



arctic deserts of rock and snow depend for subsistence. Every part of the 

 animal is used. The flesh, stomach, and intestines are eaten, as are the 

 points of the antlers when soft, and the marrow of the leg bones. Soup is 

 made from the blood and meat mixed together. The hair forms the warmest 

 clothing; also tents, cords, and shoe-strings. Knives and needles are made 

 from the bones; fish-hooks, spears, and knife-handles from the horns; while 

 certain tendons serve as fine strong sewing thread for use with the bone 

 needles.^ 



1 Ingersoll, p. 323. 



