useful to the Chipewya7is, 439 



on various kinds of lichens and mosses, gradually moving north- 

 ward until they reach the coast, where they bring forth their 

 young in the beginning of June ; in July they begin to retire from 

 the sea-board, and, in October, rest on the edge of the wood, where 

 they remain during the cold of winter. In the northward move- 

 ment the females lead, while the southward migration is almost 

 invariably headed by a patriarchal male. The horns of these 

 deer are much varied in shape, scarcely any two animals having 

 them precisely alike. The old males shed theirs towards the end 

 of December, the young males and barren females in April, and 

 the gravid females in May. Their hair falls in July, but begins to 

 loosen in May. The new coat is darkish brown and short ; but 

 it gradually lengthens, and becomes lighter in color until it ob- 

 tains the slate-grey tint of winter. A full grown buck will weigh 

 about a hundred weight ; the flesh when in prime condition is very 

 sweet, but bucks, when in season, have their fat strongly impreg- 

 nated with the flavor of garlic, which indeed is always present more 

 or less. The summer food of the Reindeer is lichens, moss, and 

 coarse grass ; in the winter it consists of the dried hay of the 

 swamps, and the hairy moss adhering to the pine trees. I have 

 seen it stated that these animals in the winter, in order to procure 

 food, shovel away the snow from the ground with their horns, 

 but this theory, however plausible, is entirely negatived by the facts 

 of the case, for from my own knowledge, and all that I can learn^ 

 both from whites and natives, these deer use their feet only for 

 this purpose. Indeed when the horns would be necessary the 

 males would have already lost them, and a supplemental addition 

 would be required to the hypothesis, of the females clearing a 

 space for the males to graze on, as the gentler sex, at that period, 

 reversing human fashions, wear the horns instead of their lords. 

 The Barren-ground Reindeer furnishes the principal support of 

 the Yellow-knife, Dog-rib, and Hare Indians, and has the same 

 value to them the moose to the other branches of their nation. 

 Their clothing for winter is made out of fawn skins, dressed 

 with the hair on, and consists of capotes, gowns shirts, leggins 

 mittens, socks, and robes, which are warm, and when new, 

 nice looking. Hides which are so much peiibrated by the larvae 

 of the ^sirus as to be unfit for any other purpose, are converted 

 into babiche, to make which the skin is first divested of hair and 

 all fleshy matter ; it is then with a knife cut into the desired thick- 

 ness, the operation beginning in the centre of the skin. There 



