1917] The Ottawa Naturalist. 109 



During the summer of 1893 while travelling northward between 

 Athabasca lake and Chesterfield Inlet the Tyrrell brotherst saw on 

 the shores of Carey lake about latitude 62 15' a herd estimated to 

 contain from 100,000 to 200,000 individuals. 



In 1877 the caribou are reported to have crossed the north arm of 

 Great Slave lake on the ice in an unbroken line which was fourteen 

 days in passing and in such a mass that in the words of an eye witness 

 "daylight could not be seen" through the column. 



Wharburton Pike saw enormous numbers of caribou at Mackay 

 lake, October 20, 1889 and says: 



"I cannot believe that the herds of Buffalo on the prairie ever 

 surpassed in size La Foule (the throng) of the Caribou. La Foule 

 had really come and during its passage of six days I was able to realize 

 what an extraordinary number of these animals still roam the Barren 

 Grounds." 



Ernest Thompson Seton gives the following description of the 

 migration of caribou as observed by Colonel Jones (Buffalo Jones) 

 in October at Clinton Golden in the Barren Lands: 



"He stood on a hill in the middle of the passing throng with a 

 clear view ten miles each way and it was one army of Caribou. How 

 much further they spread he did not know. Sometimes they were 

 bunched, so that a hundred were on a space one hundred feet square; 

 but often there would be spaces equally large without any. They 

 averaged at least one hundred caribou to the acre; and they passed him 

 at the rate of about three miles an hour. He did not know how long 

 they were in passing this point; but at another place they were four 

 days and travelled day and night. The whole world seemed a moving 

 mass of Caribou. He got the impression at last that they were standing 

 still and he was on a rocky hill that was rapidly running through 

 their hosts." 



Even halving these figures to keep on the safe side, we find that 

 the number of Caribou in this army was over 25,000,000. Yet it is 

 possible that there are several such armies." 



It is reassuring as regards the future of Canada's big game to 

 learn from Inspector Anderson that the caribou still exists in numbers 

 which are comparable with those reported by these earlier observers. 



fCan. Geol. Surv.. Ann. Rept. vol. IX, n. ser. 1898, p. 165. 

 JFrank Russell Expl. in the Far North, p. 88, 1898. 



