each of which differs from the one found in Europe and Asia. Among hunters and sportsmen, two divisions have long been known, namely, the woodland caribou and the Barren Ground caribou. The former includes the larger species, or the caribou proper, as it may be termed, and the recently described species from Newfoundland and Alaska; while the latter is represented by a single species, the Rangifer articus.
The woodland caribou is in general about twice the size of the species inhabiting the Barren Grounds, has a height of 4½ feet at the shoulder, and weighs some 250 pounds, although the males sometimes reach a weight of 400 pounds. Its range is from Nova Scotia and Newfoundland northwestward through the subarctic forest to British Columbia and northeastern Alaska. As its popular name signifies, its home is in the forest, and although meeting the smaller form during the latter's southward migrations, it does not extend its range to the Barren Grounds. On the south, it was formerly found in northern Michigan and in southern New York, and thence eastward through Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Owing to the activity with which it has been hunted, it has for the most part been crowded to the north of the St. Lawrence, and is reported to be greatly diminished in numbers even in the wilds of Labrador. It still wanders into the woods of New Hampshire and Maine, and occurs somewhat abundantly in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. It is the caribou of Newfoundland, etc., which comes nearest the reindeer in size and in the shape of its magnificent antlers, but none of the American species has been domesticated.
The Barren-Ground caribou still occurs in large herds in northern Labrador, on the treeless region to the west of Hudson Bay, and in winter migrates southward into the shelter of the subarctic forest. In its northern range it reaches the shore of the Arctic Ocean and the islands adjacent, and on the west follows the tundra to the Bering Sea coast. In Alaska it formerly occurred in immense herds, especially in winter, when it made long inland journeys through the forest and across the frozen rivers, but
the invasion of the region by miners and the supplying of the natives with firearms has led to a great reduction in its numbers. In the barren and but seldom traversed region to the west and north of Hudson Bay the caribou is still in its primitive condition and moves in bands numbering several thousand. In this connection an extract from the journal of J. B. Tyrrell, of the Canadian Geological Survey, is of interest: "All day [July 30, 1893] the caribou have been around us in vast numbers, many thousands being assembled in a single herd. One herd collected on the hill behind our camp, and another remained for hours in the wet bog on the point in front of us. The little fawns were running about everywhere, often coming up to within a yard or two of us, uttering their sharp grunts as they stood and looked at us or as they turned and ran back to the does. About noon a large herd had collected on the sides and summit of the hill behind us. Taking a small hand-camera with which we were supplied, we walked quietly among them. As we approached to within a few yards of the dense herd, it opened to let us in and then formed a circle around us, so that we were able to stand for a couple of hours and watch the deer as they stood in the light breeze or rubbed slowly past each other to keep off the black flies. The bucks, with their beautiful branching antlers, kept well to the background. Later in the afternoon a herd of bucks trotted up to us and stood at about 40 yards distant. This was a most beautiful sight, for their horns were fully grown, though still soft at the tips, but unfortunately we had no camera with us. We did no shooting to-day." The herd of caribou just described was estimated to contain between 100,000 and 200,000 animals.
The destruction of the woodland caribou in the eastern portion of Canada has been so great that it is in danger of being exterminated, and great suffering, and even starvation has overtaken the Indians of that region in consequence. Similar, but even more alarming results have followed the thoughtless slaughter of the Barren-Ground caribou in Alaska, and to prevent the suffering and even
threatened extermination of the natives, reindeer from Siberia and northern Europe have been introduced by the United States Government[4] and are thriving under the care of herders from Lapland. The moss on which the reindeer feed is abundant in Alaska, and there seems no good reason why they should not become as numerous and useful in their new home as they were in the boreal portion of the Old World. The first reindeer were introduced in Alaska in 1881, and the several herds, collectively, now number 3,323.
[4]The introduction of domesticated reindeer into North America is a very important matter, and one which if properly conducted will add vastly to the food supply and resources for clothing for both native and white people. The civilization of the natives in the northern portion of the continent and the securing for them of a source of subsistence which will depend on their own care and industry hinges on the success of this undertaking. Much information in this connection may be found in the reports of Sheldon Jackson, published by the Bureau of Education at Washington between 1893 and 1900.
The Moose.—This, the largest living representative of the deer tribe, and with the exception of the bison the largest existing land mammal of North America, formerly inhabited the continent throughout its entire breadth from the forty-third to the seventieth degree of latitude, or from the mouth of the Ohio to the mouth of the Mackenzie. Although crowded northward and now found only sparingly in the United States, as, for example, in the extensive forests of Maine and in the still larger forests clothing the mountains of Montana and Idaho, it has held its own in the wildest and most remote portions of the Pacific mountains in Canada and Alaska, where its numbers are perhaps nearly as great as they were a century ago. Its preservation is due not only to its shyness, remarkably quick hearing, and keen sense of smell, but to its solitary habits and the fact that it does not gather in herds during the breeding season, like most other deer.
A full-grown male moose is from 7 to 8 feet high at the shoulder, and from 10 to 12 feet high at the tip of the magnificent antlers when standing erect, and is from 800
to 1,200 pounds in weight. The broad palmate antlers with numerous sharp points sometimes measure 8½ feet or more from tip to tip. The does are without antlers, and are still more ungainly than the long-legged and apparently awkward males. Stringent laws are now enforced for the protection of the moose in all of the inhabited portions of its range, and it is likely to survive and to continue to tempt the sportsman to traverse the wild regions it inhabits for several generations to come.