36 NEWFOUNDLAND CARIBOU 



would have escaped, not even a moose, which, next to the 

 Caribou, can get through a soft swamp as well as any animal 

 I know. Besides being, as we have seen, a snow-shoe and 

 bog-walking device, the foot of the Caribou facilitates walking 

 on ice, and is so well adapted to swimming that it propels 

 the animal through the water at a speed which must be 

 seen to be appreciated. Certainly no large animal can com- 

 pete with it. Single-handed in a light canoe, with no wind 

 to be considered, I find that I can with difficulty overtake a 

 Caribou ; it means straining to my utmost and going probably 

 about six miles an hour. How long the Caribou could keep 

 up such speed, I cannot say, but I believe we both would 

 get exhausted about the same time. Allowing them to go 

 at their regular speed, which is rather over two miles an 

 hour, they do not seem to tire any more than when walking. 

 They have no objection to taking the water and will often 

 swim in preference to going on land. It must be a large 

 lake indeed that will cause them to change their route. 

 Five miles is about as far as I have ever heard of them going 

 by water, though personally I have never seen them do any- 

 thing like that distance. The fawns at the age of three 

 or four months enter the water, no matter how cold it 

 may be, just as readily as the old ones. The picture facing 

 page 32 shows one that swam up river by the side of the 

 canoe for over half-a-mile, for no apparent reason and 

 without fear, so long as he did not get wind of me. No 

 animal swims so high out of the water as the Caribou, as 

 may be seen by some of the accompanying photographs, 

 their coats act as a life jacket, owing to the air-filled, quill- 

 like hair which supports them. When in the water, the 

 tail is always held erect, like the white flag of the Virginia or 

 white-tail deer, when the animal is alarmed. Indian file is 

 the rule of formation for swimming if there is any distance 



