322 NEWFOUNDLAND 



he is the game- warden of Long Harbor country. I had 

 the good fortune to meet him in 1906. Joe had gone in to 

 shoot a couple of deer about ten miles north of Mr. Ryan's 

 house, and described the night as the most wonderful he 

 had ever seen. As far as the eye could reach there were 

 " millions and millions of caribou," and he stood in astonish- 

 ment the whole day as the pageant rolled by. Putting 

 aside Rigg's pardonable exaggeration, the deer seen by him 

 must have constituted a half of the stock in the whole 

 island, perhaps a hundred thousand, and the sight must have 

 been a remarkable one. These deer moved west without 

 a stop till they came to Conn River, where dozens were 

 killed in the streets of the village. From thence they held 

 on, and dispersed themselves from this point westward as 

 far as Burgeo for the rest of the winter. 



When reindeer are caught in isolated positions, such as 

 small islands and ranges of mountains, by one of these 

 sudden frosts following a thaw, and there is no chance of 

 escaping to less exposed places, the whole stock die of 

 starvation. Such a calamity occurred on the Upper Laerdal 

 mountains in 1892, and on several islands in the north of 

 Hudson's Bay some years ago, and I could name other 

 instances. 



Purely local movements, brought on by sudden meteoro- 

 logical conditions, must not be confounded with the annual 

 migrations which take place in nearly all parts of the island 

 at two distinct seasons, and which I shall now endeavour 

 to describe. 



Caribou, like other species of deer which occur in large 

 numbers, are in the habit of changing their habitats. In the 

 case of moose these changes of range are generally gradual, 

 extending over a period of several years, whilst the reindeer 



