[73.] 2. C e r v ü s t à r a n d u s . (Linn.) The Rein-Deer,
or Caribou.
G e n u s C e rv u s. L i n n . Sectio, R a n g if e r in î.
Caribou ott A s n e sauvage. Sagard-Theodat, Canada, p. 751. A n . 1636. La H ontan, t. i.p . 77* A n . 1703.
Chaule voix, Nouv. France, t v , p. 190.
R e in -d e e r , or R a in d e e r . Da age, Voy^ vol. i. p. 25. D o b b s , Huds. Bay, pp. 19, 22. P ennant, Arctic ZooI.y
vol. i. p. 22. Cartwright, Labrador, pp. 91, 112, 133. F ranklin, First Journey, &c., pp. 240, 245.
G o d m a n , Nat. Hist., vol. ii. p . 283.
C om m o n d e e r . H e a r n e , Joum.,p. 195, 200. P a r r y ’s a n d L y o n ’s Narratives, p a ssim.
C e rv u s ta r a n d u s . Sa b in e , Suppl. Parry's First Voy., p. cxc. R ic h a r d s o n , App. Parry's Second Voy., p. 326.
R o s s , Parry's Third Voy. H a r l a n , Fauna, p. 2 3 2 .
C a rrè -boe u f, o r C a rib o u . F r e n c h Ca n a d ia n s .
A t t e h k . C r e e I n d ia n s . E t t h i n . C h e p e w y a n s a n d o th e r N o r t h e r n I n d ia n s .
T o o k to o . E s a u i m a u x . T u k t a . G r e e n l a n d e r s (F a b r ic iu s .)
The rein-deer inhabits the arctic islands of Spitzbergen and the northern
extremity of the old continent; its range, according to Baron Cuvier, never
having extended to the southward of the Baltic. It has long been domesticated,
and its manners are well ascertained, and have been carefully described by able
naturalists. It varies in size according to the district in which it is fed; the
breed which the Laplanders train to the sledge being of small stature when compared
with the large kind reared in the north of Asia by the Tungusians, who ride
upon them. The rein-deer or caribou of North America are much less perfectly
known. They have indeed so great a general resemblance in appearance and
manners to the Lapland deer, that they have been always considered to be the
same species, without the fact having ever been completely established. Pennant
states that the rein-deer are most numerous in the countries surrounding
Hudson’s Bay, and that their most southern residence is the northern parts of
Canada *. They exist in Greenland, Labrador, and Newfoundland, but are not
known in Iceland. They extend most probably completely across the northern
parts of the American continent, and are mentioned both by Pennant and
Langsdorff, as inhabitants of the coast opposite to the Fox or Aleutian islands.
They do not appear, however, to extend so far to the southward on the Pacific
coast as they do in Labrador, and on the shores of Hudson’s Bay. Some parts
* D r . H a r l a n in fo rm s u s , t h a t t h e r e in - d e e r e x te n d a s f a r so u th a s th e d is tr ic t o f M a in e , b u t w i th o u t q u o tin g h is
a u th o r ity . C h a rle v o ix sa y s, t h a t i t is so u n u s u a l f o r th em to com e so f a r so u th a s Q u e b e c , t h a t h e k n ew o f o n ly o n e
in d iv id u a l h a v in g w a n d e re d t h i th e r— T h e o n e h e a llu d e s to , o n b e in g c h a se d , p r e c ip ita te d its e lf f rom C a p e D iam o n d ,
a n d , sw im m in g a cro ss th e S t. L aw r e n c e , w a s k ille d b y some I n d ia n s , w h o w e r e en c am p e d o n P o in t L e v i.
of New Caledonia seem to be altogether destitute of them. According to
Pennant, they are not found on the islands that lie between Asia and America,
but are numerous in Kamtsehatka. The Koreki, a nation bordering on the
latter country, are said to keep immense herds of rein-deer, some rich individuals
possessing to the enormous extent of ten or twenty thousand. The limits assigned
by writers to the rein-deer in America are liable to some uncertainty, because
the term of caribou, by which they are generally known, has, particularly in
Canada, been applied to very distinct species of deer*. Be this, however, as
it may, there are two well-marked and permanent varieties of caribou that inhabit
the fur-countries, one of them confined to the woody and more southern districts,
and the other retiring to the woods only in the winter, but passing the summer
on the coast of the arctic sea, or on the Barren Grounds, so often mentioned in
this work. The early French writers on Canada, and Jeremie, Ellis, Dobbs,
Umfreville, and others, who have given an account of that part of the Hudson
Bay Company’s possessions which lie to the southward of Churchill River, treat
of the woodland variety only. Hearne’s descriptions of the rein-deer, on the
other hand, relate principally to the Barren Ground kind, with which he was
thoroughly acquainted ; and it is of this variety that specimens have been brought
home by the late arctic expeditions. Neither variety has as yet been properly
compared with the European or Asiatic races of rein-deer, and the distinguishing
characters, if any exist, are still unknown. Major Smith, indeed, observes that
“ a probable distinction, by which some, if not all the varieties of caribou may be
distinguished from the rein-deer of the old continent, is, that their horns are
always shorter, less concave, more robust, the palm narrower, and with fewer
processes than those of the former.” I have had but little opportunity of ascertaining
how far these remarks apply to the woodland variety of caribou, but I can
with confidence say, after having seen many thousands of the Barren Ground kind,
that the horns of the old males are as much if not more palmated than any antlers
of the European rein-deer to be found in the British museums. The annexed cuts
were made from drawings by Captain Back, of the antlers of two old buck
caribou, killed on the Barren Grounds in the neighbourhood of Fort Enterprise.
It is to be recollected, however, that the antlers of the rein-deer assume an almost
infinite number of forms, no two individuals having them alike.
• T h u s , M r . H e n r y , w h e n h e m e n tio n s C a rib o u t h a t w e ig h 4001bs., m u s t h a v e some o th e r species o f d e e r i n v iew .