igo6] The Caribou ov Queen Charlotte Islands. 73 



THE CARIBOU OF QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 



In the issue of The Ottawa Naturalist for February, 1900, 

 Mr. Ernest Thompson-Seton described a new species of caribou 

 from the Queen Charlotte Islands. The species was lounded on 

 a fragmentary skull and one horn bui the description of the skin 

 given by a gentleman who saw i; and a comparison of the skull 

 with that of allied species seemed to warrant Mr. Thompson- 

 Seton's conclusion that the caribou of the Queen Charlotte Is- 

 lands was an undescribed species. However this may prove to 

 be the more important question of whether there are really cari- 

 bou on Graham Island or not has been doubted by many residents 

 of British Cclumbia. This doubt has now been set at rest by 

 Commander Hunt and Lieut. Bills, of H. M. S. Shearwater, 

 whose account of their visit to Graham Island is printed below. 

 It is due to the kindness of Mr. F. Kermode, Curator of the 

 Provincial Museum at Victoria, B. C, that the Editor is enabl- 

 ed to supplement the very complete account given by Mr. Thcmp- 

 son-Seton of what was at that time known of the Graham Is- 

 land caribou by this later information. The tracing of the foot- 

 print referred to in Messrs. Hunt and Bills' report has been 

 shown to several gentlemen who have seen caribou tracks and all 

 pronounce it to have been made by that animal. Messrs. Hunt 

 and Bills report as follows : 



"For some years past the question of the existence of caribou 

 on Queen Charlotte Islands has been frequently discussed by 

 naturalists and sportsmen. A pair of antlers, suppos- 

 ed to have been taken from a caribou shot on these islands, 

 was sent from Graham Island to Victoria some years ago, but 

 this, we believe, is the the only specimen which is kncwn to have 

 come from that island, and sceptics have suggested that the 

 head probably came from the mainland and was traded with the 

 Indians of the islands. 



"From time to time various persons who have visited the 

 islands have reported tracks of animals of the deer family, but, 

 in view of the fact that wild cattle are known to wander about 

 inland, it has been thought that these were responsible for the 

 tracks. As far as we can ascertain, no pair of antlers has been 

 taken from the islands for some years, and, apart from the horns 

 mentioned above, over whose authenticity doubts have been cast, 

 naturalists were in doubt as to the nature of the animal which, 



