THE ASIATIC REINDEER AND ELK 
Both light and dark varieties occur, some of the dark ones closely 
resembling T. r. osborni. Nearly all have white necks, very dark lower 
shoulders and legs, whilst some are white and some blackish grey under- 
neath. The black flank stripe is usually well marked. 
The small variety ( T . r. yakutskensis) used by the Chunchuses is also 
used in Okhotsk and is mainly preferred for riding, whilst the large native 
deer ( T . r. phylarchus) is used as a beast of burden, with packs, or killed 
for food. 
The wild deer are killed in this way all over Eastern Asia. Tame deer 
are driven on the spoor, and when the wild ones are sighted the latter run 
up to the hunters and are easily shot. Mr Lance informs me that the tame 
deer are constantly attacked by wolves, who drive them through the forest 
in flight. Reindeer never stop and fight as elk do, but generally rush to 
camp when attacked by wolves, and seem to understand that men are their 
protectors. 
A very large reindeer exists on the island of Saghalien and is used for 
ploughing by the Japanese. It is probably of the foregoing sub-species, 
having been imported long ago, as ancient Japanese pictures give repre- 
sentations. 
Reindeer are found in small numbers on all the largest of the Siberian 
islands in the Arctic Sea, but no specimens have yet reached us, though 
there may be some in the Petrograd Museum. 
Elk exist in Siberia from the Urals east to Amurland, approximately 
north of lat. 50°. They inhabit the forest and mountain regions as far north 
as the timber goes, and in summer go far in the swamp and dwarf wood 
region immediately south of the tundras. Their habits are identical with 
the elk of Europe and North America. 
Three distinct sub-species of elk are found in Siberia. In the west, from 
the Yenesei to the Urals, exists a medium-sized elk, certainly larger than 
its Russian representative but probably closely allied to it. Throughout 
Central Siberia occurs Alces machlis bedfordice, a small grey elk, with 
poor and usually non-palmated antlers. Throughout Yakutsk the large 
Alces machlis yakutskensis is found, where representatives of this race 
nearly as big as the north-western elk of America, Alces machlis gigas , 
have been obtained. This animal inhabits the whole of Yakutsk, and 
probably Kamchatka and Koriakland, but up to the present no heads or 
skins of this northern elk have reached us. 
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