MIGRATIONS 97 



snow - covered ground, a condition which I had not 

 previously succeeded in getting. Altogether, I saw over 

 five hundred Caribou before returning to camp, surely 

 enough to satisfy even the greediest of hunters. Had the 

 sun only been a little more generous, the pictures would 

 have been better, and no apologies would then have been 

 necessary for the dullness of some of them. 



This day's work, though an exceptionally lucky one, 

 will give some idea of the southerly migration, of how the 

 animals travel and how abundant they are ; also of the 

 great pleasure that may be had in watching them. It is a 

 form of sport which all may enjoy to the utmost, free from 

 the necessary restriction of game laws, for with the camera, 

 the game bag is never filled. There is always room 

 for more. 



The migration is so irregular that anything like a rule for 

 procedure must be so full of exceptions as to be of very 

 little value, but in a general way it may be said that once 

 the start is made, the movement continues with more or less 

 interruptions, according to the weather, until all the animals 

 which intend seeking the winter quarters of the south have 

 passed the Sandy River region, and that usually happens by 

 the middle of December. The earlier herds consist chiefly 

 of does, fawns, and younger stags, then more stags appear, 

 and these are, as a rule, the larger ones. Supposing that the 

 migration started on October 22nd, and that ordinary 

 weather conditions prevailed — that is to say, some snow and 

 fairly cool days and cold nights — we might expect the big 

 stags to be crossing Sandy River between October 26th and 

 November 15th. Later on, I am told, great herds of stags 

 come unattended by does, but these I have never seen, even 

 though I have waited until December 5th ; that autumn, 

 however, was exceptionally mild, and practically no animals 



