132 
ORDERS OF MAMMALS— HOOFED ANIMALS 
resemblance to the domestic reindeer of Europe. 
Its antlers are long, branching, partly round and 
partly palmated. Considered as a whole, cari- 
bou occupy the upper half of the continent of 
North America, over which they are widely scat- 
tered above the 45th parallel of Latitude. 
Next to the musk-ox, the caribou is the most 
northerly of all hoofed animals. It is not only 
at home on the vast arctic waste above Great 
Slave Lake, known as the Barren Grounds, but 
it ranges on northeastward through Ellesmere 
Land, crosses to the west coast of Greenland, 
swings around the northern rim of that island, 
along the edge of the great ice cap, and down 
the eastern coast, at least as far as Liverpool 
Bay, Latitude 70°. Doubtless it inhabits the 
whole coast of Greenland, wherever the naked 
ridges and valleys of the terminal moraines yield 
a supply of food: but there is no evidence that 
it wanders over the vast sheet of lifeless inland 
ice which covers the interior of Greenland. 
At all times, a caribou is an odd-looking creat- 
ure. Even a very brief inspection is sufficient 
to reveal the special provisions which Nature 
has made to enable it to brave the terrors of an 
arctic climate. The legs are thick and strong, 
and the hoof is expanded and flattened until it 
forms a very good snow-shoe. The caribou 
walks over snow-fields and quaking muskegs, 
when the moose sinks in and ploughs through 
them. 
Its pelage consists of a thick, closely-matted 
coat of fine, wool-like hair, through which grows 
the coarse hair of the rain-coat. It is the warmest 
covering to be found on any hoofed animal ex- 
cept the musk-ox, or on any animal of the Deer 
Family. To the touch, the new coat of a cari- 
bou feels like a thick felt mat. 
The natural food of the caribou is moss and 
lichens, and in captivity very few survive many 
months without the former. The supply of 
moss for the caribou and reindeer of the New 
York Zoological Park comes from Maine, and 
costs in that state seventy-five cents per hundred 
pounds. A full-grown woodland caribou con- 
sumes about seven pounds daily. 
Although up to this date nine species of cari- 
bou have been described, there are but two well- 
defined groups, the woodland and Barren 
Ground. In each of these, several species have 
been described, but it must be admitted that so 
effectually do they run together it is not always 
an easy matter to distinguish them. 
In common with many members of the Deer 
Family, caribou are distinguished chiefly by 
their antlers. But even here, great difficulties 
are encountered. With their many tines and 
points, varying size and forms of palmation, 
their antlers are subject to thousands of varia- 
tions. As a result, no two pairs ever are found 
exactly alike. Between the very long, few- 
pointed and scarcely palmated antlers of the 
Greenland caribou, and the short, many-pointed 
and widely palmated antlers of the mountain 
caribou, every conceivable form may be found. 
If ten pairs of adult antlers of each so-called 
species were collected in its type locality, and 
the whole ninety mixed in one heap, the utmost 
that even an expert could hope to accomplish 
without a heavy percentage of error would be 
to separate the collection into two groups, one 
containing the four species of Barren Ground 
caribou, the other the five woodland species. 
It is useless to enter here into details regard- 
ing each of these nine tentative species. 
Without a very large collection of specimens, 
and prolonged study of' them, it is impossible 
to define the boundaries between the various 
species that have been proposed. Let it suffice 
to present a brief outline of the two great groups 
into which all our caribou seem to be rationally 
divisible. 
The Woodland Caribou Group. 
Roaming through the pine and spruce forests, 
and also the prairies of Newfoundland, Nova 
Scotia, New Brunswick, northern Maine, Quebec, 
Ontario and Manitoba, are the caribou longest 
and best known to us. A typical specimen 1 living 
in the Zoological Park is a strong lusty animal, 
48 inches high at the shoulders, weighing 280 
pounds, and endowed with sufficient energy to 
vanquish the strongest man in about one minute. 
Its shoulders are high and sharp, its head is 
held low and thrust straight forward, and as 
it walks on hard ground its dew-claws and hoofs 
click like castanets. Its head is long and cow- 
like, and its muzzle is too large for beauty; but 
the large, liquid, dark brown eyes appeal suc- 
cessfully against all adverse decisions on ques- 
tions of beauty. 
1 Ran'gi-fer car’i-bou, from Maine. 
