214 



Caribou -Hunting. 



AFLOAT ON A CAKE OF ICE. 



urous disposition, no doubt, in some degree influences the geograph- 

 ical distribution of the species. In the month of December, 1877, 

 a caribou was discovered floating out to sea on a cake of ice near 

 Dalhousie, on the Restigouche River in New Brunswick, and was 

 captured alive by some men who put off to him in a boat. 



It is said that, in very severe seasons, large numbers of caribou 

 cross from Labrador to Newfoundland on the ice. His admirably 

 constructed hoof, with its sharp, shell-like, cutting edges, enables 

 him to cross the icy floes ; when traveling in deep snow, its lateral 

 expansion prevents him from sinking. 



At one time the Indians were as great adepts at calling the wood- 

 land caribou as they are in the present day in deluding the moose. 

 My Indian friend Sebatis is the only Indian I know who can imitate 

 the calls of the caribou, and he has for a long time given up this 

 manner of hunting. He informs me that, from being so much hunted 

 and molested in their haunts, the caribou have become much more 

 timid and wary even during the rutting season, and also seem to be 

 much more critical of the sounds produced by the birch- bark call, 

 and consequently very seldom respond thereto. 



The quiet gray color of the caribou is well adapted to conceal his 

 presence from the hunter, and it requires an educated eye to pick out 

 his form on the heathy barren, where everything assimilates to him 



