ANIMALS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
89 
In usefulness, this animal exceeds all others of the northern 
zone ; and it is a curious fact that, though domesticated in Eu- 
rope and Asia, — where, 
as beasts of burden, 
in the application of 
their sinews to bow- 
strings, and by their 
powers of endurance, 
they point out the ad- 
mirable wisdom of the 
Deity in placing them where the natives have so little to 
depend on, — yet the North American Indians have never in 
any way made use of their living services. 
It is as yet an unsettled fact as to the identity of the 
Cariboo or Reindeer of North America with the celebrated 
beast of draught, and much less is known of it than of the 
Moose. De Kay, in his history of the State of New York? 
states it to be much of the same size as the common deer ; 
but it is since ascertained that the adult males are often 
found fourteen to fifteen hands high. It is this difference of 
size which has led to the belief that the cariboo is a distinct 
variety from that which is the chief article of food to the 
Esquimaux of the western, and domesticated by the Lap- 
landers of the eastern continent. That animal is scarcely 
found south of the Arctic circle, while the Cariboo is found 
here everywhere north of the 45th and 46th degrees north 
latitude. 
The mode of hunting Cariboo differs in nothing from that 
of the moose, with this exception, that owing to the inferior 
weight of the animal, and the pliability of its pastern joint, 
which bends so completely, at every stride, under him, as to 
afford a very considerable fulcrum and support in the deep 
snow, he is able to travel so much longer and so much more 
fleetly, even through the worst crusts, that it is considered 
milkers, furnishing food, 
