200 Wheeler, Spring Migration at Timber Ldne. [^^rU 



Arctic circle cuts Bathurst Inlet. Every night it froze, and every 

 day there was a heavy thaw; yet at our turning point there was 

 more snow than there had been at our starting point. The first 

 day out we caught up with the migrating stags and saw at a very 

 rough estimate about one thousand of them. These were the 

 laggards, the fat old gentlemen, big and heavy with horns in the 

 velvet and about two feet long. After this we saw fewer each day 

 and the individuals seen averaged younger, thinner and more 

 active. 



At our turning point we had reached the vanguard and saw 

 only about two hundred, all of them young — "runners" as the 

 men of Newfoundland call them. These Barren Ground Caribou 

 impressed me as being much more nearly related to the Newfound- 

 land Caribou than to the Woodland Caribou. 



On the way back we soon came to bare ground and left our sleds 

 packing out our blankets on our backs. We reached Enterprise 

 June 11. By this time all the caribou were beyond the Copper- 

 mine River. 



We stayed at Enterprise about a week and then set out for Rae. 

 The first lake crossed was choked with ice but there was open 

 water in all the rest of them. 



Seven species of trees were noted. The Spruce (Dog-rib name- 

 Tsi). Is found as a large tree to the edge of the Barren Lands, 

 and in isolated groves many miles beyond the line of continuous 

 timber. Stimted, dwarf trees (Dog-rib name Tchu neich'oli, 

 usually translated "the land of little sticks") occur south of timber 

 line and also on the Barrens as an irregular fringe rarely more than 

 a few miles from the large trees. The banks of the Coppermine 

 River below Lac de Gras and the shore of the Southern extremity 

 of Diri Ti are well wooded. No wood is found between Winter 

 Lake and the Coppermine or between the Coppermine and Diri Ti. 

 There is a fir tree (Dog-rib name — Tsi), which only grows North 

 of Aiejean Ti,^ found wherever the Spruce reaches large size, even 

 in the groves far out on the Barrens. It does not occur south of 

 Aiejean Ti. The trees are more spreading and even than the 

 Spruce, and their bark is thin, pale, smooth and contains blisters 



• Aiejean Ti = Spirit Lalte. 



