and many other
commodities for their owners. In the north of Asia, the Tungusians have
a much larger sort, which they ride upon; and the Koreki, who dwell upon
the borders of Kamschatka, possess vast herds of reindeer--some rich
individuals owning as many as ten or twenty thousand!

It is not certain that the reindeer of America is exactly the same as
either of the kinds mentioned; and indeed in America itself there are
two very distinct kinds--perhaps a third. Two kinds are well-known,
that differ from each other in size, and also in habits. One is the
"Barren Ground caribou," and the other, the "Woodland caribou." The
former is one of the smallest of the deer kind--the bucks weighing
little over one hundred pounds. As its name implies, it frequents the
Barren Grounds, although in winter it also seeks the shelter of wooded
tracts. Upon the Barren Grounds, and the desolate shores and islands of
the Arctic Sea, it is the only kind of deer found, except at one or two
points, as the mouth of the Mackenzie River--which happens to be a
wooded country, and there the moose also is met with. Nature seems to
have gifted the Barren Ground caribou with such tastes and habits, that
a fertile country and a genial clime would not be a pleasant home for
it. It seems adapted to the bleak, sterile countries in which it
dwells, and where its favourite food--the mosses and lichens--is found.
In the short summer of the Arctic regions, it ranges still farther
north; and its traces have been found wherever the Northern navigators
have gone. It must remain among the icy islands of the Arctic Sea until
winter be considerably advanced, or until the sea is so frozen as to
allow it to get back to the shores of the continent.

The "Woodland caribou" is a larger variety--a Woodland doe being about
as big as a Barren Ground buck--although the horns of the latter species
are larger and more branching than those of the former. The Woodland
kind are found around the shores of Hudson's Bay, and in other wooded
tracts that lie in the southern parts of the fur countries--into which
the Barren Ground caribou never penetrates. They also migrate annually,
but, strange to say, their spring migrations are southward, while, at
the same season, their cousins of the Barren Grounds are making their
way northward to the shores of the Arctic Sea. This is a very singular
difference in their habits, and along with their difference in bulk,
form, etcetera,