WOODLAND CARIBOU 
135 
Woodland Caribou are not numerous anywhere 
in the Canadian Northwest Territories, for in all 
my travels for the Geological Survey of Canada, 
extending over the period from 1883 to 1898, 
I did not see a dozen of those animals, though on 
hundreds of different occasions I saw their great 
wide-spreading tracks. The only one I ever shot 
was feeding on a rocky hill, beside a stream that 
flows into the east side of Lake Winnipeg; and 
his head is now hanging in the Museum of the 
Geological Survey, in Ottawa. 
“The smaller species of Caribou lives on the 
Barren Grounds during the summer. On the 
approach of winter most of the animals migrate 
est and value. To many Indian tribes, such as 
the Dog- Ribs and Yellow Knives, and to many of 
the Eskimo tribes also, it has been an important 
source of subsistence, both in food and clothing. 
It is so peculiarly a creature of treeless and in- 
hospitable regions, and is so independent of the 
conditions which are essential to the existence 
of all round-horned members of the Deer Family, 
that its desolate home has been inseparably con- 
nected with its popular name. Species may 
come, and species may go, but we hope that the 
brave and hardy Barren Ground Caribou will 
go on forever. 
It is natural that in any animal species which 
antlers of Greenland carxbou ( R . groenlandicus) . 
Showing the form characteristic of the Barren Ground Caribou group. Specimen from the northwest coast of 
Greenland, in author’s collection. 
southward to the edge of the forest, though 
some remain throughout the winter on the open 
barrens. 
“Twice, in 1893 and 1894, 1 met what is known 
as ‘the herd,’ on its way southward, once on a 
good feeding ground, where hundreds of thou- 
sands were collected together, and again on a 
rough, rocky tract where the individual bands 
rarely exceeded a few hundred in number, and 
all were on the run.” 
Barren Ground Caribou Group. 
Throughout a vast and very hungry sweep of 
northlands, the Barren Ground Caribou 1 long 
has been, and still is, an animal of leading inter- 
1 Ran'gi-fer arc'ti-cus. 
ranges from the east coast of Greenland to the 
west coast of Alaska (3,500 miles in an air line), 
and from Grant Land to the Churchill River 
(1,S00 miles), some variations in form, color and 
horn architecture should occur. Indeed, in a 
range so immense, it could scarcely be otherwise. 
While it is probable that some of these variations 
justify the creation of specific divisions, we are 
at present less concerned with these details than 
with a consideration of the group as a whole. 
Moreover, it may be said with entire truth that 
naturalists have but recently begun to study the 
caribou of America ; and until far more material 
has been gathered, it is impossible to set forth 
the true status and life history of this genus. 
The characters which serve to distinguish 
