CARIBOU OR AMERICAN REINDEER. | 13 
There is a small patch of brown, faintly defined, around and behind the 
ears. 
Description of the horns of another specimen. 
The two main antlers are furnished with irregular and sharp points, and 
their extremity is pointed ; some of these points are from six to eight inches 
long, but most of them are quite short ; width between the horns on the 
skull, eight inches ; width of horns at the root, two inches and three 
quarters ; depth, one inch and three quarters ; length of main horn, 
following the curve, three feet ; there is a palmated brow antler with four 
points, on one side, inclining downwards and inwards ; on the opposite 
horn there are two points, but the antler is not palmated ; immediately 
above the brow antlers there is a branch or prong on each horn about 
fourteen inches in length, terminating in three points ; these prongs incline 
forward and inward. About half the length of the horn from the skull 
there is another prong on each about two inches long ; beyond these prongs 
each horn continues about the same thickness, spreading outwards slightly 
to Avithin a few inches of its extremity, where one diverges into five points 
and the other into six. The horns are but slightly channelled ; they are 
dark yellow. Between the tips, where they approach each other, the horns 
are two feet apart, and at their greatest width two feet eight inches. 
The female Caribou has horns as well as the male, but they are smaller. 
DIMENSIONS. 
Young — about two and a half years old. 
Length from nose to root of tail, ... 
of tail (vertebras), 
Feet. 
- 6 
Inches. 
4 
“ (including hair), - - - - 
- 
64 
Height of shoulder, 
- 3 
6 
Width between the eyes, 
- 
54 
From point of nose to lower canthus of eye, 
- 
9 
‘ to ear, 1 2 
Height of ear posteriorly, 5 
HABITS. 
The Caribou, or American Reindeer, is one of the most important 
animals of the northern parts of America, and is almost as graceful in form 
as the elk ( Elaphus Canadensis), to which it is nearly equal in size ; but it 
has never, we believe, been domesticated or trained to draw sledges in the 
vol. m.— 15 
