84 Field and Forest Rambles. 



some animal ; on the contrary, either when at rest or in motion, 

 its form is most decidedly ungainly, the head being greatly 

 out of keeping with the other parts, and the eye lacking 

 very much the size, brilliancy, or prominence of the stag and 

 caribou. But after all we should not expect this sense to be 

 highly developed in an animal frequenting the dense forest, 

 where smell and hearing would be more likely to discover 

 danger. It is therefore on this account we find symmetry 

 has been sacrificed to utility ; inasmuch as the enormous 

 nasal cavity, great expansion of its chambers, and extent of 

 surface covered by the olfactory membrane, together with 

 the large ear-conchs, attest the importance of these organs. 

 But acute hearing is also present in the caribou, as every 

 hunter knows full well when stalking the animal ; for although 

 the twigs may be cracking in all directions through intense 

 cold, the animal at once recognizes the sounds produced by 

 the hunter in contradistinction to nature ; but should man 

 by dint of craft manage to creep near enough, and the deer 

 happen to be lying down, and consequently not favourably 

 placed for a fatal shot, he has only to break a rotting twig, 

 when the herd will instantly spring to their feet, and he 

 may pick and choose his buck. The caribou, like other 

 deer, when not previously molested is easily approached, 

 and at the first report of the rifle becomes so completely 

 electrified by the unaccustomed sound that it will stand 

 gazing in wonder, while the adroit hunter is dealing deadly 

 bullets in rapid succession. The animal is steadily decreas- 

 ing in the New Brunswick forests, not so much on account of 

 the numbers slain as from the intrusion of man on its haunts, 

 being extremely sensitive of molestation, and when once 

 fairly frightened will continue on the move for days in suc- 

 cession, nibbling moss from the trees as it goes along.* The 



* New England States seem to have been its southern limit on the 

 eastern side of the continent. In an interesting volume entitled 

 " Description de l'Ame'rique," published in Paris in 1672, it is stated that 



