THE CARIBOU 
Mr H. E. Lee (see “The Deer Family,’’ p. 280), which are evidently very 
similar to the examples of T. r. osborni. D. G. Elliot, writing in the same 
volume, says (p. 281), “/?. stonei y from the Kenai Peninsula, possesses no 
characters not found in R. montanus , and cannot be separated from it.” 
T. r. granti is said to possess a large white rump patch and white tail 
with a dark line running down the centre, whilst T. r. stonei is said to 
have a dark rump. 
Tarandus rangifer osborni. This giant form of T. r. montanus is found from 
Chilcotin northwards and through all the high plateaux of the mountains 
above the Skeena, the Stickine, the Liard, the Yukon and its main tributaries. 
It is the largest of the western caribou, but until we obtain complete speci- 
mens of the giant race of the Labrador caribou, of the George River and 
Chidley Peninsula, it must be doubtful if it is the largest of all reindeer. 
In its northern ranges and in Cassiar it is more or less stationary, fre- 
quenting both the high wind-swept plateaux and the forests below to 
river levels. In Cassiar I found them on the highest mountains of 7,000 
feet, and found fresh spoor of wandering bulls down in the woods nearly 
3,000 feet below in the home of the moose. On both sides of the Yukon 
the caribou is very migratory, and vast numbers sometimes trek north 
and south in early spring and late autumn, performing migrations similar 
to other reindeer when moving in compact bodies. In America these deer 
are more or less stationary. The horns of these caribou are very fine but 
variable, in form ranging from the palmated “Newfoundland” type to 
the spindly and long pointed stonei type. 
Again many of the Cassiar specimens have wretched brows and bays 
and enormously flattened tops, with additional top branches falling 
backwards. 
In Cassiar we find all these types of horns, but further north on the 
Macmillan the heads are apparently very uniform, being long with horn 
growth more or less evenly distributed. In Cassiar one day I had the good 
fortune to find twenty -seven big bulls together. All except one were of the 
long straggling type, with poor brows and bays and big points of varying 
length at the top. One of them must have been over 60 inches in length 
and another had palmated tops with smaller branches. The exception was 
a magnificent head of the “ Newfoundland ” type with the mass of horn 
evenly distributed, with a great amount of palmation throughout and 
fifty-three points. I was lucky enough to kill him after an exciting stalk. 
I think that the heaviest head which I have seen from this district is the 
267 
