THE CHASE. 371 
smell which is possessed by the other deer, or else when follow- 
ing up the track of the hunters their presence would have been 
‘detected. Add to these infirmities their stupidity, and the fact 
that they are easily distracted so that they are incapable of es- 
cape even in the open plain, and we have the picture of an ani- 
mal which is very useful to the natives who have to depend on 
the rudest and most imperfect weapons to procure subsistence, 
but it should hardly be called game more than a flock of sheep. 
Another remarkable fact is mentioned in this extract, and that is 
that the deer floated after being killed. This I am very sure is 
quite exceptional. From my own experience, and from all the 
information I have been able to obtain from others, the other 
species of deer sink so soon as they are killed if in the water, 
and this is the case of those without antlers as well as those that 
have antlers. The fact stated is the more remarkable, because 
of the immense antlers which the males have, which as we have 
seen are much larger in proportion to their size than those of any 
other deer. ‘“ The carcasses float.’’ No exception is made in the 
case of the bucks. The winter coats on the bodies of all deer 
consists of hollow cylinders which are, to be sure, very buoyant, 
but this coat must be enormous to sustain so great a weight in 
the water, but then undoubtedly’ they require a very warm coat 
to protect them in that arctic region. 
From all the accounts we have of the mode of taking this lit- 
tle arctic Reindeer and its capabilities for self-protection, its pur- 
suit could never become an object of interest to the sportsman. 
Indeed, it is too stupid an animal for its capture to create an in- 
terest in any but a hungry man or a butcher. The pleasure of 
the sportsman in the chase is measured by the intelligence of 
the game and its capacity to elude pursuit, and in the labor and 
even the danger involved in the capture. 
The sportsman is better rewarded by the capture of a single 
woodland caribou, which has required all his skill with infinite 
pains and labor and exposure and privation, than to participate 
in the slaughter of a thousand of his stupid cousins of the north, 
which he would look upon with indifference rather than with 
pleasurable excitement. Among the former it is a contest with 
sharp wits where satisfaction is mingled with admiration for the 
object overcome. With the latter it must be —nothing! The 
difference in the endowments for self preservation of these two 
species of deer, if not the most marked of those which declare 
them of different species, is still very remarkable and interesting. 
