^°'i9i2^ ] Wheeler, Spring Migration at Timber Line. 199 



defined although the appearance of the stumps indicates that no 

 trees have been cut since that great explorer lived there. In 

 other words nature has made no appreciable effort at reforestation 

 in ninety years. The trees in the surrounding grove are at least 

 five hundred years old. We found 1910 to be a very poor caribou 

 year, yet during April our lodge took and used twenty-four, all 

 females or yearlings. 



May first I crossed the Coppermine Ri^•er with one lodge of 

 Indians. About twenty miles out on the Barrens we saw a band 

 of ten caribou, all females or young. We killed only one of these. 

 They were the last females we saw. I got a very strong impression 

 that the caribou wintering between Rae and Enterprise in 1910 

 belonged to a herd of females, that this herd was almost completely 

 exterminated during the winter and that in consequence there was 

 practically no spring female migration at Fort Enterprise in 1910.^ 



At Diri Ti we left the squaws in a grove of large spruce and fir 

 trees — the only grove known northeast of the Coppermine River. 

 Two of the bucks and myself hunted the country west of Conghia 

 Ti, but without success. We then returned to Fort Enterprise to 

 await the migration of the stag caribou. Two of our dogs starved 

 to death and we ourselves were slightly weakened from lack of food. 



May 14 one of the Indians killed a Richardson's Barren Ground 

 Bear. It was very fat, and its stomach contained two fish and a 

 ground squirrel but its main food had been berries which had stained 

 the whole intestine purple. A similar stain dyed the intestines 

 of Ptarmigan taken at this season. 



May 18 the migration of the stag caribou commenced. It 

 lasted about ten days. The numbers in this herd were too large to 

 estimate. Bands ranging from ten to two hundred were constantly 

 passing. W^e killed thirty. Then the chief told us to kill no more 

 as we had enough. I saw no females in this herd, and I believe 

 that they had wintered in some place unknown to the Indians. 



May 30, we returned to the Barrens. In the woods the snow 

 had melted and the ground was bare but beyond timber line there 

 was enough snow for travel with dog sleds. We went east of 

 north and in six days reached a point near to the spot where the 



1 The fur traders at Rae have written to me to say that in 1911 the caribou 

 returned in their usual numbers. 



