THE CHIPEWYANS DECREASING 131 



Du Brochet territory, and in 1914 they num- 

 bered less than one hundred. If one estimates 

 the Caribou kill, per male Indian per winter, at 

 about forty animals (which is a common average 

 in my experience, though it exceeds by double the 

 number Thompson Seton estimates in his book 

 The Arctic Prairies) and takes the adult male popu- 

 lation as about one third of the whole population, 

 one arrives at substantial figures which show, 

 in a broad sense, how much less destruction is 

 taking place among the Caribou at the present 

 time owing to the decrease in Indian population. 

 I arrive at figures in this way : If in 1864 100 

 Chipewyans killed 40 Caribou per head the total 

 kill was4,000 Caribou,and if in 1914 34 Chipewyans 

 killed 40 Caribou per head, the total kill was 1,360. 

 Therefore, at a broad estimate, 2,640 fewer were 

 killed in that area in 1914 than fifty years ago ; 

 and each year the conditions are improving — for 

 the Caribou. Moreover, the territory I speak of 

 is at present far beyond the reach of the white 

 hunter, and is likely to remain so at least for 

 another century, so that there is no incoming 

 race to counterbalance the outgoing Indian. 



When first encountered the Caribou were feed- 

 ing on withered marsh-hay, growing sometimes 

 with tufts still above the snow, along the edges 

 of the countless land-locked lakes ; and on moss of 

 a pale greenish-white colour which grows on sandy 

 hills, or more luxuriantly in low-lying muskegs. 

 Later they fed on similar food, but had to dig 

 through the snow for it — as I have previously 

 described. In bad snowstorms the Indians say 

 the Caribou yard together after the manner of 



