942 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 
lose their horns until they are-about to drop their young in the month of May. 
Hearne observes, that the Barren-Ground Caribou bears horns twice the size of 
those of the woodland variety, notwithstanding that the latter is a much larger 
animal. 
In the month of July the Caribou sheds its winter covering, and acquires a 
short, smooth coat of hair, of a colour composed of clove-brown, mingled with 
deep reddish and yellowish browns ; the under surface of the neck, the belly, and 
the inner sides of the extremities, remaining white in all seasons. The hair at 
first is fine and flexible, but as it lengthens it increases gradually in diameter at 
its roots, becoming at the same time white, soft, compressible, and brittle, like the 
hair of the moose-deer. In the course of the winter the thickness of the hairs at 
their roots becomes so great that they are exceedingly close, and no longer lie 
down smoothly, but stand erect, and they are then so soft and tender, below, that 
the flexible, coloured points are easily rubbed off, and the fur appears white, 
especially on the flanks. This occurs in a smaller degree on the back ; and on the 
under parts the hair, although it acquires length, remains more flexible and 
slender at its roots, and is, consequently, not so subject to break. Towards the 
spring, when the deer are tormented by the larvee of the gad-fly making their way 
through the skin, they rub themselves against stones and rocks, until all the 
coloured tops of the hair are worn off, and their fur appears to be entirely ofa 
soiled white colour. 
The closeness of the hair of the Caribou, and the lightness of its skin, when 
properly dressed, renders it the most appropriate article for winter clothing in the 
high latitudes. The skins of the young deer make the best dresses, and they 
should be killed for that purpose in the months of August or September, as after 
the latter date the hair becomes too long and brittle. The prime parts of 
eight or ten deer-skins make a complete suit of clothing for a grown person, 
which is so impervious to the cold, that, with the addition of a blanket of 
the same material, any one, so clothed, may bivouack on the snow with safety, 
and even with comfort, in the most intense cold of an Arctic winter’s night, 
The hoofs of this variety of rein-deer are very large, and spread greatly; and 
the posterior or accessory ones make a loud clattering noise when the animal 
runs. The forms of the latter are almost always visible in its foot-marks, unless 
the ground be so hard that even the principal hoofs make little impression. 
The Barren-Ground Caribou, which resort to the coast of the Arctic Sea, in 
summer, retire in winter to the woods lying between the sixty-third and the sixty- 
sixth degree of latitude, where they feed on the wsnew, alectoria@, and other lichens, 
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