The Nome nugget., 1920-12-25
REINDEER ARE MOST WIDELY
 DISTRIBUTED MAMMAL 0N THE GLOBE

Wha: is a reindeer. anyway? The Alaska division of the Bureau of Ed ucation is frequently asked the ques- ton. since the reindeer has grown to be so important an educational and economic factor in Alaska. Here is the way Charles Hallock, formerly editor of Forest and Stream, answers the question. says the Alaska Railroad Record.
 "Reindeer (Cervus Tarandus) are not only boreal but circumpolar ani- mals. occupying habitat in common with the ice bear musk OK, arctic hare, lem,ning. snowy owl. ptarmigan. Eskimo and arctic fox. Though con- paratively lit:le known, popularly or scientifically, outside of their frozen domain, they are the most widely dis tributed mammal on the globe. inhab ting portions of Greenland and Lab rador. the margin of South Sound.
 
 tire breadth of British America east and west of the Rockies, parts of AL aska, Siberia. Spitzbergen. Nova Zem- bla. Finland of Russia and Scandi- navia. Their range belts .he entire Circle without break. and extends from the northernmost limit of polar exploration southward to latitude 52 degrees Longitude 10 wes:). where the reindeer meet the Bengal tiger in the jungles of the Amoor River in Asia. In North America it drops to latitude 55 on Eskimo bay. in eastern Labrador; to latitude 5s at Fort Churchill, on the west side of Hudson Bay: to latitude 55 in the Peace River country. and touches latitude 54 on the Aleutian Peninsula. in Alaska In middle Russia the limi. is about latitude 55. while in Norway it would no. be below latitude 65. owing to tie proximity of the Gulf Stream which renders the climate too mild for them. as well as for growth of it's favoritc food. reindeer moss. In the glacial period this succulent lichen (Cladonia rangfferinO grew much farther south. of course and the range was pro, ,.or- tionally extended, remains of this ani mal having been found in the middle United States and in Itelv occo"dins to Professor Theodore Gi!' Reindeer can not be acclimated iu ,cg,o~s where the conditions are unfavorable. Ex- per1iuents I'll vH-iou--~ countries a.a~e proved this.
 ''Closely allied with the Arctic rein deed Is the forest variety. known in America as the woodland caribou. whose conterminous range enlarses the foregoing area by a belt several de- grees in width in southerly direction. which includes Newfoundland. New Brunswick. Nova Scotia, the Lake Su- perior region. and extends almost un- broken across the continent. drop PiAAS eNeii peioW tite otn paTalei m Minnesota This variety is also found in the forests of northern Montana. Idaho. Oregon and Washington. Both species are gregarious and migra- tory. moving north and south with the annually recurring seasons. often in large herds. and both are of special economic value in their respective To- calities. affording a variety of subsist- ence to :he carnivorous fauna which are associated with them. as well as to large nomadic and constant human populations which occupy the illimita- ble wastes of the subarctic zone and :he territories contiguous to them Both are likewise susceptible of do- mestication, though the boreal variety is by far the most tractable.
 "Zoologists have not been quick Q discover the exact affinity between the reindeer of the Old World and its North American prototype. the barren ground caribou, while The difficulties in reconciling the latter with it's more southern congener. the woodland carl hou. have proved even greater. But the sum and conclusion of the whole matter so happily determined of late by thorough compa rative study of all the various groups which occupy the boreal belt and contiguous regions.