ANIMAL SANCTUARIES IN LABRADOR 479 



as the Greenland seal. The young, immediately after birth, 

 have a fine white coat which makes them valuable. The herds 

 are followed on a large scale at the end of the winter season, 

 which is also the whelping season ; hundreds of thousands 

 are killed, females and young preponderating. They are still 

 common along the east and south but diminishing steadily, 

 especially in the St. Lawrence. The Bearded, or " Square- 

 flipper," seal is rare in the St. Lawrence and on the Atlantic 

 but commoner in Hudsonian waters. It is a large seal, eight 

 feet long and bulky in proportion. The Grey or Horse-head 

 seal runs up to about the same size occasionally and is one of 

 the gamest animals that swims. It is rare on the Atlantic and 

 not common anywhere on the St. Lawrence. The " Hoods " 

 are the largest of all and the lions of the lot. They run up to 

 i ,000 lb. and over and sometimes fourteen feet long. They 

 are rare on the Atlantic and decreasing along the St. Lawrence, 

 owing to the Newfoundland hunters. The Walrus, formerly 

 abundant all round, is now rarely seen except in the far north, 

 where he is fast decreasing. 



Moose may feel their way in by the south-west to an 

 increasing extent and might possibly be reinforced by the 

 Alaskan variety. Red deer might "possibly be induced to enter 

 by the same way in fair numbers over a limited area. The 

 woodland caribou is almost exterminated but might be re- 

 suscitated. The barren-ground caribou is still plentiful in the 

 north, where most of the herds appear to migrate in an 

 immense ellipse, crossing from west to east, over the barrens, in 

 the fall, to the Atlantic and then turning south and west through 

 the woods in winter, till they reach their original starting- 

 point near Hudson Bay in the spring. But this is not to be 

 counted on. The herds divide, change direction and linger in 

 different places. Their tame brother, the reindeer, is being 

 introduced as the chief domestic animal of Eastern Labrador, 

 with apparently every prospect of success. Beaver are fairly 

 common and widely distributed in forested areas. Other 

 rodents are frequent — squirrels, musk-rats, mice, voles, lem- 

 mings, hares and porcupines. There are two bats. Black bears 

 are general ; polars, in the north. Grizzlies have been traded at 

 Fort Chimo in Ungava but they are probably all killed out. 

 The lynx is common wherever there are woods. There are 

 two wolves, arctic and timber, the latter now rare in the south. 



