Caribou -Hunting. 2 1 1 



The hoof figured in this paper is drawn from nature, and 

 measures fourteen inches in circumference, five inches in diameter, 

 and has a lateral spread of ten inches. A full-grown caribou stands 

 nearly five feet at the shoulder, and weighs from four hundred to 

 four hundred and fifty pounds. 



The animal is very compact in form, possessed of great speed 

 and endurance, and is a very Ishmaelite in its wandering habits ; 

 changing, as the pest of flies draws near, from the low-lying swamps 

 and woods where its principal article of diet, the Cladonia rangi- 

 fcrina, or reindeer lichen, abounds, to the highest mountain fast- 

 nesses ; then again, when the cold nights give warning of the changing 

 season, descending to the plains. 



The rutting season begins early in the month of September ; the 

 antlers then have attained their full growth, and the animals engage 

 in fierce conflicts, similar to those indulged in by the moose, and 

 frequently with as tragic an ending. The does bring forth one, and 

 sometimes two fawns in the month of May ; and bucks, does, and the 

 young herd together in numbers varying from nine or ten individ- 

 uals to several hundreds. 



Horns are common to both sexes, but the horns of the bucks are 

 seldom carried later than the month of December, while the does 

 carry theirs all winter, and use them to defend the fawns against the 

 attacks of the bucks. Both sexes use their hoofs to clear away the 

 snow in searching for mosses on the barrens. In their biennial 

 migrations, they form well-defined tracks or paths, along which the 

 herds travel in Indian file. I have often studied their habits on the 

 extensive caribou barrens between New River and the head of Lake 

 Utopia, in Charlotte County, New Brunswick. These barrens are 

 about sixteen miles in extent, and marked with well-defined trails, 

 over which the animals were constantly passing and repassing, here 

 and there spending a day where the lichens afforded good living, 

 then away again on their never-ending wanderings. 



A friend of mine, who visited Newfoundland on an exploring 

 expedition, informs me that there the caribou holds almost exclusive 

 domain over an unbroken wilderness of nearly thirty thousand square 

 miles, in a country wonderfully adapted to his habits, and bountifully 

 supplied with his favorite food — the reindeer lichen. 



The caribou is possessed of much curiosity, and does not readily 



