76 NEWFOUNDLAND CARIBOU 



It is not my wish to upset anybody's pet theories, but the 

 migration subject is of so much interest, that as many 

 facts as possible should be accumulated from which 

 some definite knowledge may be derived. For my own 

 part, I have found it impossible to advance any explanation 

 which will stand even my own cross-examination, and I am 

 almost forced to believe that the conditions which originally 

 made the semi-annual migration a matter of necessity have 

 passed, but that the animals having acquired the habit are 

 slow to give it up. If all, or practically all, the Caribou in 

 the island took part in the great movement, this theory 

 would have very little to recommend it ; but when we 

 consider that a great many animals spend the winter in the 

 north, almost to the extreme end of the peninsula, and also 

 that a great many spend the summer in the more 

 southerly portion of the country as far as the coast line, 

 there seems to be some reason in its favour, and I feel 

 almost sure that there is no natural cause which would 

 prevent the animals living permanently in any part of the 

 island, provided, of course, that they did not concentrate 

 and thus deplete the food supply. 



When first I took up the subject about ten years ago I 

 was told by many people, including sportsmen and guides, 

 that all the Caribou left the northern peninsula on the 

 appearance of the first snow. A trip to the north soon 

 proved to me the incorrectness of this, for not only did 

 residents of the region in question — trappers and others — 

 tell me that the animals stayed all the winter, but I found a 

 fair number of very fine shed antlers to prove that the large 

 stags were there at least until the middle or end of 

 November, and as some of the antlers were those of small 

 stags and does, the former of which do not shed till well 

 into December or even later, while the latter carry theirs till 



