HABITS OF THE CARIBOU 101 



Up to the time that Alaska was purchased by the United 

 States the natives had few firearms, or none at all, and Cari- 

 bou were abundant. Along the west coast Caribou once were 

 so numerous that a cannon from the fort at St. Michael was 

 fired at a herd that passed within half a mile of the settlement. 

 As usual, we immediately supplied the natives with firearms 

 and ammunition; and as a first result, the only Caribou now 

 remaining in western Alaska are the few stragglers that the 

 hunters have not yet overtaken. A few herds of Grant's 

 Caribou still inhabit the treeless wastes of the Alaskan Pen- 

 insula. 



The great herd seen by Mr. Tyrrell at Carey Lake, west 

 of Hudson Bay, will be mentioned in detail later on. On the 

 Labrador Peninsula there are said to be three distinct herds, 

 on Hudson Straits, Ungava Bay and the Atlantic coast down 

 to Hamilton Inlet. From Ellesmere Land five skins of a 

 white animal with a gray back have been described as Peary's 

 Caribou, 1 and from at least four points in Ellesmere Land 

 Caribou have been reported. 



Along the northwest coast of Greenland, especially be- 

 tween Melville Bay and Kane Basin, Commander Peary 

 found a fair abundance of Caribou, and at Liverpool Bay, on 

 the east coast, a number were killed by a Danish expedition, 

 in 1900. 



Habits. — One of the habits of the Barren Ground Caribou 

 is particularly striking. At stated periods, in spring and 

 autumn, they assemble in immense herds, and migrate en 

 masse with the compactness and definiteness of purpose of 



1 Rangifer pearyi. 



