328 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE 



Early in 1917 Doctor Grenfell approached the Canadian 

 Department of Indian Affairs with a view to having the 

 herd of reindeer transferred from Newfoundland to the 

 Canadian coast, where it might be developed for the benefit 

 of the Indians on the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

 Owing to various difficulties, it proved impossible to move 

 the herd during 1917. In 1918, the International Grenfell 

 Association undertook to move the deer in one of their own 

 ships, and the Department of Indian Affairs decided to place 

 the herd on a peninsula bounded on the west by Napetibi 

 Bay and on the east by Lobster Bay. The department 

 constructed there one herder's hut and erected posts for a 

 fence across the neck of the peninsula, a distance of about 

 three and one-half miles. Lack of wire prevented the com- 

 pletion of the fence at the time it was begun, but Doctor 

 Grenfell agreed to complete the work and move the deer in 

 in the fall of 1918. 



The herd was finally moved late in the fall, and herders 

 were brought from Newfoundland to take care of them. At 

 the time of moving there were about 125 reindeer. Since 

 their removal and transfer to the Department of Indian 

 Affairs there have been no complaints of poaching, and the 

 territory to which they have been moved appears to be well 

 suited for the protection and breeding of the deer; 40 fawns 

 were born in the spring of 1919.* There is every reason to 

 hope that under the more adequate care that will be given 

 them by the Canadian Government they will ultimately 

 fulfil the expectations of those who believe that they may 

 be developed for the benefit of the Indians of that region, 

 who stand in great need of the food and clothing that such 

 valuable animals produce. 



* In March, 1921, the herd numbered between 140 and 150. 



