PECULIARITIES OF THE CARIBOU 87 
damage arise for adjustment. It is the state law that each 
county shall consider the damage claims of its citizens, and 
pay from the county treasury whatever awards are finally 
approved. The law works expeditiously, and so satisfac- 
torily that its future seems assured. The whole subject is 
covered in “Our Vanishing Wild Life,” page 241. 
By way of illustration it may be stated that in the two 
years 1908-9 the people of Vermont paid out only $4,865 
in compensation for damages inflicted by deer, and in the 
* same period they killed and consumed 7,186 wild deer, worth 
about $107,790. As a business proposition the soundness of 
the Vermont basis leaves no room for argument. All that is 
necessary anywhere in handling damages by deer is a sensible 
law, honesty and truthfulness on the part of the claimant, 
and prompt adjustment by the proper county officers. The 
theory is that the quota of deer killed and consumed in each 
county affected amply justifies the county in paying dam- 
ages from public funds. In Vermont the great majority of 
claims for damages are under $10 each. 
The Flat-Horned Deer 
Tue Carrsou.—In general terms it may be stated that a 
Caribou (pronounced car’ry-boo) is a wild deer-like animal, 
which bears a general resemblance to the domestic reindeer 
of Europe. Its antlers are long, branching, partly round 
and partly palmated. Considered as a whole, Caribou occupy 
the upper half of the continent of North America, over which 
they are widely scattered above the 45th parallel of latitude. 
Next to the musk-ox, the Caribou is the most northerly of 
