NO. 1405. MAMMALS OF NORTHWEST TERRITORIES— MA CFARLANE. G79 



pies almost invariabl}' attain a laro-pr sizo and heavier weight than 

 thtMi- fertile kin(li-(>fl. Chief Trader II. I. M()l)erly, an cxperituiced 

 ortieer, hiinttu', and woodsman, confirms th(^ truth of this statement 

 from his own pcM'sonal observation. In his North West Passag'e, Doctor 

 Armstrong- mentions that Capt. Sir Robert McClur(% one of a small 

 party of explorers sent out in the spring- of 1851 from Her Majesty's 

 Franklin search-expi^dition ship Jnrefttlgator^ t\\Q,n wintering- in Prince 

 of Wales Strait, said that he saw three animals wliicli he hrmly 

 believed to be moose in about latitude 71 north and long'itude ll-t'^ 

 west. I think this is the tirst and only record of this animal having 

 been met with on the lands lying to the north of the American 

 Continent. 



Chief Trader James Loekhart has recorded that "the moose down 

 at Peel River and Fort Yukon are much larger than up this way 

 [Great Slave Lake and Fort Simpson |. There, 1 have known two cases 

 of extraordinary moose having l)eiMi kilh^d |proba])ly one or ))oth were 

 obtained at Peel River], the meat alone of each of tlnMu weighing- 

 over 1,000 pounds. The Loucheux have a superstition that tiic Indian 

 who meets with one of these extraordinarily large moose is sure to 

 die within the year, or else meet with some grievous misfortune"." 



The above may belong to the gigantic species recently discovered 

 on the western coast of Alaska, or they may be representati^'es of 

 those referred to by Mr. Moberly. I have never met any of these 

 monster moose, although of course I have seen examples weighing 

 considerably over the general average. 



WOODLAND CARIBOU. 



Ravyifer curUxyn ((Tnii'liii ). 



1 do not think this species extends much be3^ond latitude 67^ 30' 

 north, except perhai)s in spurs of the Rock}" Mountains to the west. 

 It is a larger animal than the Barren Ground reindeer, and is not met 

 with in the "barrens" proper, nor on theshoresof the Polar Sea. Like 

 the latter, the females produce one or two fawns in spring. The rut- 

 ting season, as well as the period of gestation and time of birth, are 

 said to be much the same as in the case of moose. The eyes of the 

 young are open when l)orn, the skin is light brown, and they soon 

 Ix^come quite lively and strong. They are suckled for several 

 months. The skin of the woodland caribou is dressed by the native 

 women and afterwards made into necessary moccasins, gloves, tunics, 

 and trousers, and sometimes women's dresses. Those cut by the 

 gadfly are converted into "])al)iche'" for lacing snow-shoes, and 

 occasionally into thongs of various thickness, which were formerly, if 

 not now, twisted into snares for capturing deer. Herds of the 



«Proc. U. S. National Museum, XIII, 1890, p. 307. 



