74 The Ottawa Naturalist. fJ u b r 



reports stated, lived on the islands. We believe that the latest 

 rumor on the subject was to the effect that the animal was a 

 wapiti. 



"A favourable opportunity having occurred to investigate 

 the question, we set out on the 22nd February, 1906, from Hus- 

 san Point on the west side of Virago Sound and struck inland 

 in a westerly direction. The country was timbered, but fairly 

 open, and the going good, thick patches of sal-lal being fre- 

 quent. After forty minutes packing we emerged upon the open 

 crest of a hill, and here saw tracks of some large animal of the 

 deer family. The open space was about half a mile long and 

 300 yards broad, covered with a thick carpet of moss in which 

 were dotted numerous small pools of water. A few stunted 

 trees grew about, for the most part in a withered condition. 



"This open space was the first of many which we found in 

 the area of our wanderings and nearly all showed tracks in a 

 greater or less degree. These open spaces crown nearly all the 

 hills (none of which can be more than 400 or 500 feet in height) 

 and between them are patches of bush more or less dense and all 

 containing a good deal of sal-sal. In a few places we came 

 across the tracks in the bush, but the nature of the country 

 doubtless prevented us from noticing many others. 



"According to the Graham Island Indians (the Hydahs) 

 snow to the depth of two or three feet had covered the hills up 

 to a few weeks before our arrival, but this had disappeared save 

 a few isolated patches which were fast melting. In three dif- 

 ferent patches of snow we saw tracks of a deer-like animal, but 

 they were probably two or three days old and the melting of the 

 snow had caused them to lose their original sharpness. 



"It was our intention to take photographs of any clear 

 tracks, but those in the moss did not lend themselves to such 

 procedure and those in the snow were too indistinct. A sketch 

 was made of one fresh hoof-print found in the thick moss and 

 careful measurements made. It is by no means one cf the larg- 

 est se >n, but was sufficiently sharply defined to enable sketch 

 and measurements to be taken. 



'We saw a good deal of dung in the open spaces, and a 

 litt'e in the bush ; it was always in small heaps of rounded black 

 substance and appeared to be that of caribou. Some appeared to 

 be fairly fresh, but none was seen that we would consider less than 

 forty-eight hours old. At the edge of one of the open spaces 



