WINTER HAUNT OF CARIBOU 105 



Since the beginning of time, as far as men know, 

 they have always come here Reindeer Lake ! 

 Assuredly jnot for nothing had it been thus named. 



In that particular territory the southern bound- 

 ary of Caribou migration may be said to be the 

 Churchill River, though animals have been killed 

 on rare occasions as far south as Cumberland 

 House on the Saskatchewan River. But the 

 great area of Reindeer Lake, larger than a half- 

 dozen English counties, is pre-eminently the 

 favoured winter feeding-ground. 



In October or November each year large herds 

 of Caribou reach the north end of the lake, and 

 apparently continue south chiefly on the eastern 

 shores. Thereafter they scatter abroad for a 

 period, and travel slowly from place to place, 

 over frozen lake and snow-lain forest, while feeding 

 on abundant white moss and marsh-grass, and a 

 consideration of mud which they seem to relish. 



In winter their method of feeding is to dig 

 down to the ground-surface with their remarkably 

 sharp forefeet, and then to work forward in the 

 channel they have made in the snow, which is 

 sometimes of a depth of three feet or more. 

 When the depth of snow is very bad the Caribou 

 prefer feeding in open muskeg valleys, between the 

 more densely grown forests, where the wind gets 

 at, and sweeps away, part of the covering, and the 

 labour to reach the undergrowth is accordingly 

 less. 



Early in the year the does and yearling fawns 

 again commence to move northward, while the 

 bucks remain behind to follow later. They 

 return not as they came, not chiefly on the eastern 



