Reindeer^ — Barren Ground Caribou, 75 



that exist there. Of the Caribou horns they form their fish-spears and 

 hooks ; and previous to the introduction of European iron, ice chisels and 

 various other utensils were likewise made of them.' The hunter breaks the 

 leg-bones of a recently slaughtered Deer, and w^hile the marrow is still 

 warm, devours it with relish. The kidneys, and part of the intestines, 

 particularly the thin folds of the third stomach or manyplies, are likewise 

 occasionally eaten when raw, and the summits of the antlers, as long as they 

 are soft, are also delicacies in a raw state. The colon or large gut is 

 inverted, so as to preserve its fatty appendages, and is, when either roasted 

 or boiled, one of the richest and most savoury morsels the country affords, 

 either to the native or white resident, The remainder of the intestines, 

 after being cleaned, are hung in the smoke for a few days, and then 

 broiled. The stomach and its contents, termed by the Esquimaux nerrooksy 

 and by the Greenlanders nerrikak tierriookak, are also eaten, and it would 

 appear that the lichens and other vegetable matters on which the caribou 

 feeds are more easily digested by the human stomach when they have been 

 mixed with the salivary and gastric juices of a ruminating animal. Many 

 of the Indians and Canadian voyagers prefer this savoury mixture after it 

 has undergone a degree of fermentation, or lain to season, as they term it, 

 for a few days. The blood, if m.ixed in proper proportion with a strong 

 decoction of fat meat, forms, after some nicety in the cooking, a rich soup, 

 which is very palatable and highly nutritious, but very difficult of digestion . 

 When all the soft parts of the animal are consumed, the bones are pounded 

 small, and a large quantity of marrow is extracted from them by boiling. 

 This is used in making the better kinds of the mixture of dried meat and 

 fat, which is named pemmican, and it is also preserved by the young men 

 and women for anointing the hair and greasing the face on dress occasions. 

 The tongue roasted, when fresh or when half dried, is a delicious morsel. 

 When ^it is necessary to preserve the caribou meat for use at a future 

 period, it is cut into thin slices and dried over the smoke of a slow fire, 

 and then pounded betwixt two stones. This pounded meat is very dry 

 and husky if eaten alone, but when a quantity of the black-fat or 

 depouille of the deer is added to it, is one of the greatest treats that can 

 be offered to a resident in the fur countries. 



" The caribou travel in herds, varying in number from eight or ten to 

 two or three hundred, and their daily excursions are generally towards the 

 quarter whence the wind blows. The Indians kill them with the bow 

 and arrow or gun, take them in snares, or spear them in crossing rivers or 

 lakes. The Esquimaux also take them in traps ingeniously formed of ice 

 or snow. Of all the deer of North America they are the most easy of 

 approach, and are slaughtered in the greatest numbers. A single family 

 of Indians will sometimes destroy two or three hundred in a few weeks, 

 and in many cases they are killed for their tongues alone" 



This deer is described as of an unsuspecting but inquisitive disposition, 

 the latter quality often leading to his destruction. The northern hunter, 

 when he sees a caribou feeding in the open plain, approaches as near as he 



