ANNUAL MIGRATIONS. 313 



herds spend the summer season subsisting on the short 

 grass which in a few weeks changes these cold gray 

 shores to softer green. 



" With the approach of autumn the bands turn south 

 again, and, uniting upon the borders of the Barren 

 Grounds, spend the winter in the forests which fringe 

 the shores of the Bear, Great Slave, and Athabasca 

 Lakes. Thousands are killed by the Indians on this 

 homeward journey ; waylaid in the passes which they 

 usually follow, they fall easy prey to Dog-rib, and 

 Yellow-knife, and Chepewyan hunter ; and in years of 

 plenty the forts of the extreme north count by thou- 

 sands the fat sides of cariboo piled high in their pro- 

 vision stores." 



It will therefore be evident how important a place 

 these two animals hold in the domestic economy of the 

 inhabitants of these untilled solitudes. White man 

 and Redskin alike depend upon them for their daily 

 food ; and in seasons when from any cause the buffalo 

 is too far south on the plains, or the reindeer does not 

 appear at the usual season, famine stares each one in 

 the face, unless goose and duck, whitefish and salmon, 

 have been secured in extraordinary numbers to meet 

 the deficiency. 



