THE NEWFOUNDLAND CARIBOU 323 



may suddenly desert a district in which they have lived for 

 years for no apparent reason.^ 



Twenty years ago the main winter abode of the Newfound- 

 land caribou stretched from Bay Despair to La Poile, whilst 

 a certain number, nearly all small deer, spent this season until 

 the spring in the high country, just below the forest belt, 

 stretching from Terra-Nova and Cloete Sound to St. John's 

 Lake. It is strange that few came south of this into the 

 great open country between the Tolt and the Bay de Nord 

 River, but Indians have told me that at this time it was the 

 rarest thing to see more than a few odd deer in this area 

 north of Fortune Bay, which is now their principal home at 

 this season. To-day a certain number of deer never migrate 

 at all, and live in the woods of the interior and the penin- 

 sulas, which are their summer home. There are always 

 some to be found at all seasons in the Northern Peninsula, 

 and many other isolated tongues of land, such as are found 

 south of St. John's and Placentia ; and on the east coast 

 many too remain throughout the year in the forests about 

 Red Indian Lake, Victoria Lake, St. George's Lake, the 

 Gander, the La Poile, Round Lake, and the Western Maelpeg 

 — in fact, over the whole island. 



The building of the railway, which cuts the island in two 

 in the north centre, proved what had already been known 

 for years, that a vast body of deer commenced its migration 

 from the Northern Peninsula early in September. In cold 

 seasons this movement commenced early in the month with 

 the advent of does and calves with a few young stags. 

 These crossed the track at various points between the Gaff 



^ A good instance of this has occurred recently in East and North-Eastern 

 Ontario. Previous to the year 1897, all the country from Mattawa to Abatibi was 

 caribou ground. About that year the caribou began to desert it for Northern 

 Quebec, and in their place entered moose in great numbers. 



