106 THE BARREN-GROUND CARIBOU 



shores of the great lake, but scattered broadcast 

 among the islands of the frozen lake, and on both 

 mainland shores. The fact is that theirs is a 

 leisurely return, since there is no weather change 

 to urge them to haste — as is the case when the 

 great massed droves hasten south — and so they 

 travel easily, and in food-seeking, scattered herds. 

 There is almost certainly a second reason for the 

 leisurely return of the does and fawns, and that 

 is the maternal instinct of the does, for many of 

 them are with young that they will give birth to 

 in early spring. 



One can easily understand why those great 

 herds of Caribou travel south in the Fall. The 

 undergrowth on the Barren lands is plentiful, 

 but there are no trees. When winter comes the 

 wind, driving over the exposed white surface, 

 packs the snow hard, and an icy crust forms 

 through which it is difficult, sometimes impos- 

 sible, to break for grazing. It is, as it always is 

 by nature's arrangement of things, a question of 

 existence, this insistent migration of those animals. 

 As the thermometer drops in the Far North, and 

 food and shelter become difficult to find, the 

 animals will band together and grow restive, and 

 pause from time to time to sniff the wind from the 

 south with question on their countenance. And 

 one day, with proud heads up and anxious eyes, 

 they will commence their long travel through 

 sheltering forests where snows are soft and food 

 is plentiful beneath the yielding surface. 



At Prince Albert, or any frontier town, you 

 may on rare occasions run across a Cree or a 



