Royal Physical Society. 353 



bears any comparison with the apparatus of the North Ameri- 

 can Barren Ground caribou. It has, in addition to the basal 

 palmated triangular shovel, a second projecting prong with 

 terminal points or fingers curved inwards, very like the brow 

 antler of the Lapland deer. The use of these pieces of appa- 

 ratus is sufficiently obvious. The upper projecting antler with 

 curved points is to scrape into and break the surface of the 

 hard crust of frozen snow; the triangular ploughshare or 

 spade is to shovel away the softer snow below ; and its struc- 

 ture is so admirably adapted for this purpose, that it is im- 

 possible to doubt the evidence of design exhibited in it. 

 In the more perfect specimens the two projecting basal prongs 

 fill up the whole space above the head, and the termination 

 of the right prong is slightly curved towards the right, like 

 a shoveL or an open hand looking in that direction, and the 

 other is slightly curved in the opposite direction ; so that, 

 actually, we have a double-actioned shovel, no motion being 

 lost — the reverse motion to the left, which was necessary to 

 enable it to give the impetus of a fresh sweep to the right, 

 clearing away in its course a shovelful to the left, and the 

 returning motion to the right to give impetus to the motion 

 to the left, shovelling away in its course a portion to the 

 right. The less furnished specimens have only one single 

 basal antler, but its straight upright position renders it nearly 

 equally available for this double-actioned power. 



The habits of this species also are known to correspond with 

 this structure. Every author who treats of the North Ame- 

 rican species speaks of its using its horns to clear away the 

 snow ; and whether this was recorded or not, the well-used and 

 much-worn state of the palmated divisions in the specimens 

 now received proves sufficiently that this is their habit, and, by 

 inference, that this is the purpose for which the peculiar form 

 which these horns possess has been bestowed upon them. 

 That the Lapland deer also use their horns, more or less, 

 in removing the snow from the food which it covers, may 

 be true; but that their horns are much less used for this 

 purpose appears, not only from the form of the horns, but 

 also from the notices of their habits, which we find in the 

 works of those authors who have treated of them. In some of 



