18 AMERICAN GAME. 
in the office of the “Spirit of the Times,” all brought 
from the same island, by the late Mr. Henry Palmer, of 
New Brunswick. 
The general characteristics of this huge deer, inferior 
only in size to the Moose deer, Cervus Alus, of the same 
regions, and to the Wapiti, Round Horn, or American 
Elk, Cervus Canadensis, of the far west, differing and dis- 
tinguishing it from all other animals of the same species, 
are first: The peculiar structure of its horns, combining 
the properties of the palmated and furcated structures. 
Second, The length and looseness of its pelage, and the’ 
shortness of its tail, which rather resembles the scut of a 
hare, than the long flag of a deer; and thirdly, The ex- 
treme cleft of its hoofs and feet, extending up the pas- 
terns, nearly to the fetlock joint. A structure to which 
this animal owes its great facility in traversing the 
treacherous snow drifts, is the unparalleled spread of its 
hoofs and pasterns, the whole length of which rests on the 
surface over which it bounds, when in full action, up to 
the fetlock, supporting it where small-footed animals of 
inferior size and weight would sink up to the belly at 
every stride, and where man himself labors even with 
the mechanical aid of snow-shoes. 
In speaking of the color of the Reindeer below, as the 
most grizzly and lightest colored of itstribe, I am not cer- 
tain that I have not fallen into the error of assigning the 
characteristic coloring of one, the Newfoundland var iety, 
and possibly the winter coloring of that, as general 
~ 
