LIFE AND HABITS 19 



and leave unmistakable proof of the distress they cause. 

 The insects, therefore, are the enemies which so greatly 

 influence the life and habits of the Caribou and the doe 

 does what is in her power to keep her young safe from their 

 attacks. Durinp; these summer months their lives would be 

 lives of peace and comfort, for food is plentiful and varied 

 and the weather mild, but for the flies who harass them from 

 sunrise to sunset, and the mosquitoes who pester the 

 wretched animals throughout the cool northern nights. 

 Nature has strangely arranged things and no man can find 

 a reason for many of her plans ; why she should allow the 

 dumb animals to be pestered is a question that none can 

 answer. 



During the warmer months the Caribou are more or 

 less solitary in habit, going about singly or in pairs and 

 only rarely in small herds of halt-a-dozen or more. In 

 the day-time they keep very largely to the woods, coming 

 out to feed at the approach of evening. I do not wish 

 it to be understood that they never feed during the day, 

 for they do so occasionally, more especially when the 

 weather is dark and cold, and as the summer draws to a 

 close they feed more and more by day, so that by 

 September their habits have completely changed and they 

 become almost entirely diurnal. 



Throughout the season of warmth and sunshine, the doe 

 and her fawn live together, indifi'erent to all but each other. 

 The young Caribou for about two months or so is almost 

 entirely dependent on its mother for food; gradually it learns 

 to nibble on the mosses and lichens, so that by the end of 

 summer it is self-dependent. It continues to suckle however 

 just as long as the mother has milk, and I have seen them 

 taking it as late as the beginning of November. To a great 

 extent, the Caribou spend the summer in the more elevated 



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