THE GAME ANIMALS OF CANADA 65 
body—men, women, and children—wears during the cold season, the best 
skins are those of the young animals killed in July or August, as the 
_ hair is short and does not fall off so readily as in coats made from the skin 
of a full-grown caribou; while the strong sinews lying along the back- 
bone of an old bull make the very best thread for sewing. Anything that 
is left over after supplying the whole family finds a ready sale at the 
fort, where there is always a demand for dried meat, tongues, grease, 
dressed skins, and babiche, so that the Dog-ribs and Yellow-knives, 
whose country produces little fur, with the exception of musk-ox robes, 
are thus enabled to afford some few of the white man’s luxuries, tea and 
tobacco being especially dear to the Indian’s heart. 
The skins of the caribou are in the best condition in Sep- 
tember, and the meat is best in September and October, 
when, in the words of J. W. Tyrrell, ‘‘the males are rolling 
fat, and as food their flesh is equal to the finest beef.” In 
the spring the flesh is poor, as it also is in the summer. In 
the spring the skins are of little value, on account of the 
shedding of the hair, and the frequent abundance of warbled 
hides, to which reference will be made later. 
The increase in the number of rifles supplied to the Es- 
kimos on the Arctic coast has resulted in a great increase in 
the number of caribou killed. At the same time, the ability 
to obtain this form of food so easily has led to a change in 
the habits of the Eskimos. Formerly they usually hunted 
seal during the winter, and continued until late in May. 
Now, Doctor R. M. Anderson informs me, they are coming 
ashore one or two months earlier than was their former 
custom, and living on the caribou which are migrating 
steadily northward in April and May. While they are 
migrating they are most easily killed. But the worst feature 
of this spring killing, which of course is illegal, is that most 
of the caribou killed are females which are crossing to Vic- 
toria Island to give birth to fawns in June. It is of the 
greatest importance to the conservation of the caribou that 
this practice should be stopped, and recommendations to 
