THE INDIANS 213 



In the southern half of the peninsula the common blue- 

 berry grows abundantly in burnt areas, and constitutes 

 an important crop to both bears and Indians. At con- 

 venient places the outgoing families burn fresh areas each 

 spring, as the yield falls away after two or three crops. 

 Coming up river in the early fall, the families camp at a 

 suitable distance from their berry farm, and the men make 

 a kind of surround hunt for bears. Sometimes as many 

 as fifteen are taken in a few days. Then the women and 

 children turn in for the berries. A good deal of blueberry 

 cake is made, the berries being stewed in a kettle until they 

 will hold together, and then dried. The name of the cake 

 means "like liver/' from its final appearance; it will keep 

 indefinitely. The blueberry is minish, the "little-berry." 



Formerly the barren-ground bear ranged rather widely 

 in the northern districts. The last one reported was killed 

 near the Barren-groundland Lake of the George about the 

 year 1894. Peter McKenzie, who has bought their skins 

 at Chimo, says the hair was very dark, even black. Both 

 Eskimo and Indian regard it as aggressive and dangerous, 

 though the Eskimo tales at least need not be taken too 

 seriously. They are afraid of the common black bear, 

 being unfamiliar with it. The much more formidable white 

 bear they make little of, attacking him readily with hand 

 weapons. No complete skin of the barren-ground bear of 

 Labrador has been examined; the species is probably 

 extinct now, and while it is not unlikely to have been a 

 variety of grizzly, its identity may never be established. 



The caribou range from Hudson Strait to the coast at 

 Belle Isle Strait, where they sometimes mix with the larger 

 woodland species. The migrations do not hold together 



