DEER. 
373 
come to the American varieties, but it is important that the periodical migrations 
of these animals which take place in Siberia should be noticed here. Admiral von 
Wrangel, when in Eastern Siberia, had an opportunity of seeing such migrations 
on more than one occasion; and he relates that the moving masses might be 
reckoned to include thousands of individuals, split up into herds of two or three 
hundred head. On one of these occasions the Admiral states that “two large 
migrating bodies of reindeer passed at no great distance. They were descending 
the hills from the north-west, and crossing the plain on their way to the forests, 
where they spend the winter. Both bodies of deer extended further than the eye 
could reach, and formed a compact mass narrowing to the front. They moved 
slowly and majestically along, their broad antlers resembling a moving wood of 
leafless trees. Each body was led by a deer of unusual size, which my guides 
assured me was always a female.” 
These southerly winter migrations of the reindeer are of considerable import¬ 
ance in regard to the former occurrence of this animal in Southern Europe; for 
since its remains are not unfrequently found in association with those of the 
hippopotamus, we can scarcely assume that in such localities at any rate the climate 
could have been otherwise than comparatively mild. Accordingly, the most 
probable hypothesis seems to be that in the Pleistocene period the reindeer, driven 
by the intense cold of the more northern portions of its habitat, must have travelled 
so far south during the winter till it reached regions where the rivers were suitable 
for the habitation of the hippopotamus. 
At the present day reindeer are unknown in the Old World to the south of a 
parallel running a little below the southern shore of the Baltic; it appears, however, 
that in the time of Caesar they were met with in the Black Forest of Northern 
Germany, although whether as permanent residents or as winter immigrants, cannot, 
of course, be now ascertained. In the British Isles, remains of reindeer are com¬ 
monly met with in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and it was long considered that 
in Caithness this deer survived till the middle of the 12th century, although the 
latest researches tend to discountenance this idea. Reindeer remains are also found 
over the Continent, occurring as far south as the valleys of the Dordogne and 
Garonne in France. 
Turning; now to the American reindeer, which, as aforesaid, are 
Caribou 0 
characterised by the great development and palmation of one brow- 
tine of the antlers, and the abortion of the other, we find there are two well-marked 
varieties. The first and smaller of these is the barren-ground caribou, the R. 
groenlandicus of those who regard it as a distinct species. This reindeer is found 
only in the barren Arctic districts lying to the northwards of the forest-region of 
North America. It is abundant in the desolate regions to the northward of Fort 
Churchill, whence it extends to the confines of the Arctic Ocean. This form, 
although much inferior in point of size to the woodland caribou, has larger 
antlers; and it is mainly on the latter ground that American zoologists urge its 
right to be reckoned as a distinct species. Although confined in summer to the 
so-called “ barren-grounds,” this variety of the reindeer makes extensive southerly 
migrations in autumn, in order to spend the winter in the forest-regions tenanted 
by the woodland caribou. It appears, however, that even when inhabiting the 
