314 NEWFOUNDLAND 



a further polish on the alders, and obtain the desired effect. 

 This pretty superstition is not an Indian one, and may be 

 found in many old books on hunting in England and the 

 Continent, and the tale must have been received by the red 

 men from the early English colonists. 



The caribou does a great part of his horn-cleaning with 

 the hoofs of his hind feet. In fact all deer with which I am 

 acquainted use the hoof largely in freeing the horns of the 

 velvet that clings to the coronets and other parts which are 

 difficult to rub on trees. I have seen both wild and tame 

 reindeer thus engaged, and the foot often get so involved 

 in the antlers that you wonder how it will again become 

 free. But they have a delicate sense of touch, and the most 

 minute particles of velvet are thus removed, whilst there is 

 no instance on record of the reindeer stag having entangled 

 itself in its own horns. 



As in the case of other deer, the best horns are carried 

 by stags of from six to twelve years of age. The average 

 horns do not bear more than twenty points, and have one 

 fair brow shovel, and a hook for the corresponding orna- 

 ment on the other horn. A good many have twenty-five 

 points, whilst a good head generally has thirty points and 

 over. Points are not all sufficient, but nearly every first- 

 class head I have seen has borne thirty-five points or more. 

 The ambition of every hunter in Newfoundland is to kill 

 a forty-pointer, and a few achieve this distinction. I think 

 that any hunter of experience who goes far enough afield 

 and works hard in the second season ought to see eighty 

 adult stags, and one amongst them will be a forty-pointer 

 or even more. 



Horns bearing more than forty-two points are extremely 

 rare, yet every year one or two are killed. I have seen 



