lo NEWFOUNDLAND CARIBOU 



of labour when we consider the rudeness of the implements 

 employed for cutting down the trees, and anyone who knows 

 Newfoundland can fairly appreciate the difficulties of the task, 

 as the trees of this country are remarkably tough. Some of 

 these fences are said to have been forty miles or more in 

 length ; they were begun at the bank of a narrow river which 

 was deep enough to force the animals to swim, and the two 

 arms diverged widely so that a large stretch of country was 

 controlled. The Caribou, coming along in the course of their 

 semi-annual migrations, would meet this obstacle and follow 

 it to the river's edge. As soon as they entered the water, 

 primitive man attacked them with his simple weapons, and 

 we can understand how easily the wretched animals were 

 killed as they floundered through the water in densely packed 

 herds, so frightened that they were incapable of resistance or 

 intelligent action. It is no wonder then that they are imbued 

 with the fear of man. We may even imagine that the 

 modern man, with his far-shooting weapon, who frequently 

 kills without being seen, is less an object of dread than he of 

 the past who engaged in what were literally hand-to-hand 

 conflicts in which the slaughter must have been terrific. 

 Fortunately the island was very sparsely inhabited, otherwise 

 these methods would have greatly reduced the number of 

 Caribou and we would not have the great herds which exist 

 to-day. 



How the Caribou first came to the island is somewhat a 

 matter of conjecture, but it seems reasonable to suppose that 

 previous to the severance of this land from the mainland by 

 the Straits of Belle Isle, the animals lived there just as they 

 did on the whole northern continent. There is, at least, no 

 reason to suppose that they did not as the conditions are, 

 and probably were, similar. Most of this northern country 

 was more or less covered with that important though 



