328 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE 
Early in 1917 Doctor Grenfell approached the Canadian 
Department of Indian Affairs with a view to having the 
herd of reindeer transferred from Newfoundland to the 
Canadian coast, where it might be developed for the benefit 
of the Indians on the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 
Owing to various difficulties, it proved impossible to move 
the herd during 1917. In 1918, the International Grenfell 
Association undertook to move the deer in one of their own 
ships, and the Department of Indian Affairs decided to place 
the herd on a peninsula bounded on the west by Napetibi 
Bay and on the east by Lobster Bay. The department 
constructed there one herder’s hut and erected posts for a 
fence across the neck of the peninsula, a distance of about 
three and one-half miles. Lack of wire prevented the com- 
pletion of the fence at the time it was begun, but Doctor 
Grenfell agreed to complete the work and move the deer in 
in the fall of 1918. 
The herd was finally moved late in the fall, and herders 
were brought from Newfoundland to take care of them. At 
the time of moving there were about 125 reindeer. Since 
their removal and transfer to the Department of Indian 
Affairs there have been no complaints of poaching, and the 
territory to which they have been moved appears to be well 
suited for the protection and breeding of the deer; 40 fawns 
were born in the spring of 1919.* There is every reason to 
hope that under the more adequate care that will be given 
them by the Canadian Government they will ultimately 
fulfil the expectations of those who believe that they may 
be developed for the benefit of the Indians of that region, 
who stand in great need of the food and clothing that such 
valuable animals produce. 
*In March, 1921, the herd numbered between 140 and 150. 
