II2 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [Vor. XXXV. 
the various forms, or subspecies, of reindeer is as yet too 
imperfectly known! to permit us to answer this question with 
any degree of certainty, but I wish to call attention to the fact 
that the Spitsbergen reindeer (Rangifer spitzbergensis) is too 
different from the typical wild Scandinavian stock to make it 
probable that the former is a direct descendant from the latter 
or vice versa. On the other hand, the rise of the land in that 
region 300 meters would still see Norway separated by the 
sea from Spitsbergen, at the same time leaving the latter 
connected by dry land with Novaya Zemlya, and there is at 
present nothing known which would prevent us from assum- 
ing that the reindeer originally came to Spitsbergen from 
Novaya Zemlya and Taimyr Land in Siberia.” 
In defense and elaboration of his theory of an Arctic migra- 
tion by way of Arctic America, Greenland, Spitsbergen, Lap- 
land, Dr. Scharff also discusses the travels of the insects and 
plants and comes to the conclusion that they argue for a land 
connection along this route. I think it altogether likely that 
such a dispersal took place, and would even call attention 
to the fact that the plants along the north coast of Spits- 
bergen show a greater percentage of Arctic-American plants 
than those of southern Spitsbergen as corroborative of this 
theory, but I must insist that an unbroken land connection is 
not at all necessary for the dispersal of plants and insects 
along that route, if currents of air and sea were favorable. 
Dr. Scharff in his preliminary chapter would reduce this kind 
1 If these exceedingly important questions are ever to be solved, it is neces- 
sary that they be investigated at once by some competent authority. Not only are 
the wild reindeer becoming scarce everywhere from excessive hunting, but they 
are also being mixed up in the various localities to such an extent that extreme 
care will have to be exercised in using whatever material can now be brought 
together. Thus in Norway large herds of the Lapland tame reindeer have been 
located on the southwestern fiells, where they mingle with the wild ones of a 
possibly different stock; in Spitsbergen also tame Lapland reindeer have become 
feral, as some of the draft animals which Professor Nordenskiold brought with 
him from Finmarken ran away; tame Asiatic reindeer have been brought by the 
thousands across Bering Straits to America, and a herd of Lapland reindeer have 
also been introduced into Alaska to add to the confusion. 
2 Dr. Scharff in his discussion of the migrations, etc., of the reindeer (pp. 149- 
158) seems to argue out of the premises that the Barren-Ground reindeer do 
not occur in Siberia, but this is a mistake. 
