BARREN-GROUND CARIBOU. 107 
similitudes between our two kinds of caribou, there are numer- 
ous well authenticated differences, which when well considered 
not only justify but compel us to class them as distinct species. 
The difference in size, if this were the only distinction, would be 
entitled to but little weight in the consideration of this question, 
especially when we remember that we often find animals of the 
same species occupying high latitudes, smaller in size than those 
of warmer countries. The reverse, however, we find generally 
the case with our Cervide. Our common deer are the smallest 
in Texas and Mexico, where, simply on account of their diminu- 
tive size, without any other well established and universal dis- 
tinction, they have been classed as a distinct species, Cervus 
Mexicanus. The mule deer in Lower California are even more 
diminutive in size, and their antlers have been reduced to a single 
spike. We may find little difference in the size of the moose, 
which we may ascribe to a difference in the latitude of their 
habitat. In the valley of the Mississippi the weight of evidence 
is that the southern Elk are the largest; but I do not learn that 
this is so on the Pacific slope, or even in the Rocky Mountains. I 
repeat, however, that I should not consider the difference in size, 
which is fully one half, sufficient of itself to establish a specific 
difference. 
The proportionate difference in the size of their antlers is still 
greater, and I think possesses more significance. While the size 
of this animal is only half that of the woodland caribou, its antlers 
are fully twice as large. This proportionate difference of four to 
one is entitled to weight in this inquiry. Buffon and some 
others have concluded that the size of the antlers depend largely 
upon the amount and quality of the food supplied the deer. 
This position is not absolutely refuted in this instance, for the 
supply of food to the Barren-ground Caribou is really unlimited, 
and is of the most nutritious quality, but the same is true also in 
that portion of Labrador occupied by the larger species. Hind 
assures us that he there found the beds of reindeer moss three 
feet deep, affording comfortable walking over vast fields of erratic 
rocks, which were almost impassable where the moss had been 
burned off, and yet not a word is said about an excessive de- 
velopment of the antlers of the deer. If the great abundance 
and excellent quality of the food supplied the northern deer, has 
stimulated to this excessive growth of the antlers, it would cer- 
tainly be not unreasonable to expect that it would have equally 
promoted an increase of the body of the animal, for all admit 
