74 Remdeer, — Barren Ground Caribou. 



and the sixty-sixth degree of latitude, where they feed on the long grass of 

 the swamps. About the end of April, when the partial melting of the snov 

 has softened the cetrarlce, corniciUarioe, and cevomyces, which oiothe the 

 barren grounds like a carpet, they make short excursions from the woods, but 

 return to them when the weather is frosty. In May the females proceed to- 

 wards the sea-coast, and towards the end of June the males are in full march 

 in the same direction. At that period the power of the sun has dried up 

 tlie lichens on the barren grounds, and the Caribou frequent the moist pas- 

 tures which cover the bottoms of the narrow valleys on the coasts and islands 

 of the Arctic sea, where they graze on the sprouting carices and on the 

 withered grass or hay of the preceding year, which is at that period still 

 standing, and retaining part of its sap. Their spring journey is performed 

 partly on the snow, and partly after the snow has disappeared, on the ice 

 covering the rivers and lakes, which have in general a northerly direction. 

 Soon after their arrival on the coast the females drop their young ; they 

 commence their return to the south in September, and reach the vicinity of 

 the woods towards the end of October, where they are joined by the males. 

 This journey takes place after the snow has fallen, and they scrape it away 

 with their feet to procure the lichens, which are then tender and pulpy, be- 

 ing preserved moist and unfrozen by the heat still remaining in the earth. 

 Kxcept in the autumn, the bulk of the males and females live separately ; 

 the former retire deeper into the woods in winter, whilst herds of the preg- 

 nant does stay on the skirts of the barren grounds, and proceed to the coast 

 very early in sprmg. Captam Parry saw Deer on Melville peninsula as 

 late as the 23d of September, and the females, with then* fa^sus, made their 

 first appearance on the 2 2d of April, The males in general do not go so 

 far north as the females. On the coast of Hudson's Bay the Barren-ground 

 Caribou migrate farther south than those on the Coppermine or Mackenzie 

 rivers ; but none of them go to the southward of the Churchill. 



" When in condition, there is a layer of fat deposited on the back and 

 rump of the males to the depth of two or three inches or more, immediately 

 under the skin, which is termed depouille by the Canadian voyagers, and 

 as an article of Indian trade, is often of more value than all the remainder 

 of the carcass. The depouille is thickest at the commencement of the 

 autumn ; it then becomes of a red colour, and acquires a high flavour, and 

 soon afterwards disappears. The females at that period are lean, but in the 

 course of the winter they acquire a small depouille, which is exhausted 

 soon after they drop their young. The flesh of the Caribou is very tender, 

 and its flavor when in season is, in my opinion, superior to that of the finest 

 English venison, but when the animal is lean it is very insipid, the difierence 

 being greater between well fed and lean Caribou than any one can conceive 

 who has not liad an opportunity of judging. The lean meat fills the stomach 

 but never satisfies the appetite, and scarcely serves to recruit the strength 

 when exhausted by labour," ' The Chepewayans, the Copper Indians, tlie 

 Dog-Ribs and Hare Indians of Great Bear Lake, would be totally unable 

 to inhabit their barren lands were it nor for the immense herds of this Deer 



