214 THE LABEADOR PENINSULA. CHAP. xm. 



Nasquapee races : it is to them as important an animal as 

 the buffalo is to the Prairie Indians. 



In the summer they are found on the mountains, 

 whither they go to avoid the flies and to feed on buds, 

 flowers, the fruit of a plant which grows upon the 

 mountain-sides, and on what the Indians call Atik-min, or 

 caribou food, which is wholly different from the caribou 

 moss on which they subsist during the winter. When the 

 snow begins to fall in October, the caribou collect in bands 



o ' 



and commence their singular peregrinations, which are 

 characteristic of this animal. If undisturbed by wolves or 

 Indians, they wander in a circle of many miles in radius, 

 always on the move except when sleeping. When the 

 snow is deep, they take it in turn one by one to lead the 

 band when not feeding, and open a way through the snow ; 

 as soon as the leader is fatigued, he retires to the rear 

 and another takes his place. 



Every third or fourth year they emigrate to a distant 

 part of the country, revisiting their former pasture- 

 tracks are found, and the caribou is surprised whilst lying down or 

 browsing, and shot on the spot. When the snow is not deep, and the lalces 

 are covered with ice only, the animal, if closely pursued, makes for one of 

 them, and runs over the ice so fast that it is unable to stop, if struck with 

 alarm at any object presenting itself in front, and it then suddenly squats 

 down on its haunches and slides along in that ludicrous position, until, the 

 impetus being exhausted, it rises again and makes off in some other direction. 

 When the caribou takes to the ice, the hunter always gives up the chase. 

 Sometimes, when the mouth and throat of a fresh-killed caribou are ex- 

 amined, they are found to be filled with a blackish-looking mucus, resem- 

 bling thin mud, but which appears to be only a portion of the partially 

 decomposed black mosses upon which it feeds, probably forced into the 

 throat and mouth of the animal in its dying agonies. 



When overtaken in the chase, the caribou stands at bay and shows fight, 

 and when thus brought to a stand-still will not pay much attention to the 

 hunters, so that he can approach and shoot them with ease. Audition 

 and Bachman. 



