ARCTIC REINDEER AND CARIBOU 
from the very top of the skull. They are immensely variable 
in actual and relative weight and size, amount of palmation, and 
number of points. As the shape and relative size of the antlers 
are the principal feature by which are distinguished the many 
so-called species recently separated by some zodlogists, we 
may well agree with Dr. D. G. Elliot, one of the most judicious 
of naturalists, that ‘‘all these deer, irrespective of habitat, are 
practically one species.” 
The reindeer is a northern animal and is growing more and 
more restricted to cold latitudes. In preglacial times, indeed, 
as we know by their abundant remains,® these deer visited 
southern Europe, probably in winter, from the north, as vast 
migrations of them still take place from the arctic coasts 
to the interior, The Roman explorers of Cesar’s time met 
them in Germany, and even yet they come southward to central 
Russia and the Kirghiz steppes. Northward they have been 
found everywhere except on Francis Joseph Land, thriving, 
in spite of the frigidity of the eightieth parallel or higher, on 
the lichens which cover the rocks of the mountains, and in 
summer finding grass in the valleys or seaweed along aan 
the shore. They thus inhabit Spitzbergen all the Grounds 
he Caribou. 
year round. Similarly the most northern headlands 
of America are reached in summer by the caribou, which hasten 
thither in spring, led by hurrying does. There they feed mainly 
on the marsh plants and seaweeds, drop their young in May and 
June, and begin a return journey as soon, and pursue it as 
fast, as the fawns are able to travel. The scattered family 
parties unite in bands and these into herds, until at last tens 
of thousands together — their brown summer coats changing 
to white as the dark tips of the old hairs break off, and new white 
hairs come in—are hastening southward across the desolate 
Barren Grounds, urged on by the furious storms of early winter. 
There is a continuous loud clattering of hoofs as the crowds 
press on, feeding mainly morning and evening; and so they go 
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