e shanty, whar I lay for well
nigh six weeks, afore I could go about, and damn the thing! I han't got
over it yet."

So ended Redwood's story.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

THE AMERICAN DEER.

During our next day's journey we fell in with and killed a couple of
deer--a young buck and doe. They were the first of these animals we had
yet seen, and that was considered strange, as we had passed through a
deer country. They were of the species common to all parts of the
United States' territory--the "red" or "fallow" deer (_Cervus
Virginianus_). It may be here remarked that the common deer of the
United States, sometimes called "red deer," is the fallow deer of
English parks, that the "elk" of America is the red deer of Europe, and
the "elk" of Europe is the "moose" of America. Many mistakes are made
in relation to this family of animals on account of these misapplied
names.

In North America there are six well-defined species of deer--the moose
(_Cervus alces_); the elk (_Cervus Canadensis_); the caribou
(_tarandus_); the black-tail or "mule" deer (_macrotis_); the long-tail
(_leucurus_); and the Virginian, or fallow deer (_Virginianus_). The
deer of Louisiana (_Cervus nemoralis_) is supposed by some to be a
different species from any of the above; so also is the "mazama" of
Mexico (_Cervus Mexicanus_). It is more probable that these two kinds
are only varieties of the _Genus Virginianus_--the difference in colour,
and other respects, resulting from a difference in food, climate, and
such like causes.

It is probable, too, that a small species of deer exists in the Russian
possessions west of the Rocky Mountains, quite distinct from any of the
six mentioned above; but so little is yet known of the natural history
of these wild territories, that this can only be taken as conjecture.
It may be remarked, also that of the caribou (_Cervus tarandus_) there
are two marked varieties, that may almost be regarded in the light of
species. One, the larger, is known as the "woodland caribou," because
it inhabits the more southern and wooded districts of the Hudson's Bay
territory; the other, the "barren ground caribou," is the "reindeer" of
the Arctic voyagers.

Of the six well-ascertained species, the last-mentioned (_Cervus
Virginianus_) has the largest geographical range, and is the most
generally known. Indeed, when the word "deer" is mentioned, it only is
meant. It is the deer of the United States.

The "black-