272 The Caribou 



up the bodies of the slain for the scavengers of 

 the forests, more humane than the butchers, to 

 clear away. But a few years ago progress in the 

 shape of a railroad appeared, and the iron tracks 

 crossed the island from St. Johns to Port aux 

 Basques, thus traversing some of the best caribou 

 grounds. The result was a natural one, not only 

 could distant localities be easily reached, but 

 hunters of high and low degree every year 

 scatter themselves in the vicinity of the track 

 across the island, and any luckless deer that at- 

 tempts to pass the line encounters a fusillade of 

 bullets from hidden riflemen. What chance have 

 the deer under such circumstances to escape death? 

 Only one, and that doubtless will occur to them 

 before they are exterminated : restrict their south- 

 ern migration to above the danger line, and find 

 peace and safety in the fastnesses of the north. 

 In their northward migrations in the Arctic 

 regions the Woodland caribou often travel in 

 immense herds, equalling in former times at least 

 those witnessed to-day of the Barren-Ground cari- 

 bou in certain parts of its dispersion. Over the 

 eastern side of the continent they pass north in 

 May and return again in July, and from November 

 to April, it is stated, they are rarely to be found 

 within ninety or one hundred miles of the coast. 

 They are easily killed when on these journeys, 

 and Richardson states that eighty carcasses were 



