entitles them to be ranked as separate species of deer.
The flesh of the Woodland caribou is not esteemed so good an article of
food as that of the other; and, as it inhabits a district where many
large animals are found, it is not considered of so much importance in
the economy of human life. The "Barren Ground caribou," on the other
hand, is an indispensable animal to various tribes of Indians, as well
as to the Esquimaux. Without it, these people would be unable to dwell
where they do; and although they have not domesticated it, and trained
it to draught, like the Laplanders, it forms their main source of
subsistence, and there is no part of its body which they do not turn to
some useful purpose. Of its horns they form their fish-spears and
hooks, and, previous to the introduction of iron by the Europeans, their
ice-chisels and various other utensils. Their scraping or currying
knives are made from the split shin-bones. The skins make their
clothing, tent-covers, beds, and blankets. The raw-hide, cleared of the
hair and cut into thongs, serves for snares, bow-strings, net-lines, and
every other sort of ropes. The finer thongs make netting for
snow-shoes--an indispensable article to these people--and of these
thongs fish-nets are also woven; while the tendons of the muscles, when
split, serve for fine sewing-thread. Besides these uses, the flesh of
the caribou is the food of many tribes, Indians and Esquimaux, for most
of the year; and, indeed, it may be looked upon as their staple article
of subsistence. There is hardly any part of it (even the horns, when
soft) that is not eaten and relished by them. Were it not for the
immense herds of these creatures that roam over the country, they would
soon be exterminated--for they are easily approached, and the Indians
have very little difficulty, during the summer season, in killing as
many as they please.

Norman next gave a description of the various modes of hunting the
caribou practised by the Indians and Esquimaux; such as driving them
into a pound, snaring them, decoying and shooting them with arrows, and
also a singular way which the Esquimaux have of taking them in a
pit-trap built in the snow.

"The sides of the trap," said he, "are built of slabs of snow, cut as if
to make a snow-house. An inclined plane of snow leads to the entrance
of the pit, which is about five feet deep, and large enough within to
hold several deer. The exterior of the trap is ba