108 The Ottawa Naturalist. [December 



north coming from the Southeast, most likely from Fondu Lac 

 on Lake Athabasca. They could not cross there on account of 

 late frosts and swung around towards Great Slave Lake. They 

 say the animals are scattered over hundreds of miles, and liter- 

 ally in millions; the farther east one goes, so they say, the more 

 there are and the buffalo on the plains in the long ago is not a 

 patch on this for numbers. Eventually they land in the barren 

 grounds where nobody bothers them until they take another treck. 

 I sent the Sargeant out on a patrol to see and he reported that 

 the snow is tramped down for miles as close as ice by the animals 

 feet where they passed in great numbers. It is most wonderful ! 



It is cold up here now and has been for about twenty days, 

 always from 20 to 36 below zero and sometimes blowing.* 



I remain, 



Yours sincerely, 



(Sgd.) K. F. Anderson. 

 It appears from Inspector Anderson's letter than an important 

 element in directing the course followed by the caribou in their winter 

 wanderings is the date of the freezing of the narrows of Lake Atha- 

 basca at Fondu Lac. The early coming of ice there permits the herds 

 to cross and winter farther to the south, so that they would be likely 

 to pass at a great distance to the east of Fort Fitzgerald. When the 

 lake remains open at that point till late, as happened this season, the 

 migrating columns seem to be diverted in a northwesterly direction. 

 Preble** reports that "During the winter of 1900 the caribou ap- 

 proached the Slave river within a half day's journey east of Fort 

 Smith (sixteen miles north of Fort Fitzgerald) for the first time in 

 many years." 



Mr. W. J. McLean, a former chief factor of the Hudson Bay 

 Company who observed the arrival in late summer of the caribou in the 

 region north of Lake Athabasca several years ago, described their 

 movements as follows: "It was very interesting to watch these animals 

 which were then marching in their annual tour. They scarcely 

 appeared to take any rest, or halt, excepting for three or four hours in 

 the middle of the night. They kept travelling in continuous bands 

 along the lake towards its north-east extremity and appeared to be 

 impelled by some mighty power over which they had no control. They 

 have regular and well trodden paths which they keep without deviation 

 even when fleeing from their enemy." 



With reference to the extraordinary number of the caribou report- 

 ed by Inspector Anderson it may be noted that his estimates are in 

 accord with those which have been recorded by various other observers. 



*A letter from W. G. A. McNeil Wood, Buffalo Range, dated Jan. 18, 

 reports a maximum temperature to that date of 71^ at Fort Smith. 

 **North Amer. Fauna No. 27, p. 137. 

 Man. Hist, and Sci. Soc, Trans. No. 58, Feb. 12, 1901, p. 6. 



