THE NEWFOUNDLAND CARIBOU 325 



might be killed by a single hunter. As the adult stags con- 

 tinued to decrease, this was further reduced to three, at which 

 it now remains. But during these years the stags, and no 

 doubt many of the does, had been learning a lesson by which 

 they hav'e now profited. Instead of crossing the line on their 

 northern migration in spring, the majority go no farther than 

 the chain of impenetrable forest which stretches from Glen- 

 wood to Round Pond, and again at intervals from Pipestone 

 to the headwaters of the La Poile. In this area quite two- 

 thirds of the caribou live in peace and security, and are 

 scarcely molested at all until they move south to the open 

 country, north of Fortune and Hermitage Bays, in the winter. 

 Consequently the adult stags are now hardly touched, because 

 the winter shooters invariably choose fat does in preference 

 to lean stags. 



A great number of deer, nearly all does and young animals 

 with a few mature stags, still traverse the line at their old 

 crossing-places, and the great open country north of Grand 

 Lake, and on as far as George IV. Lake, and come south as 

 they always did, but during the past few years very few good 

 heads have fallen to the guns of the "pot-hunters," who 

 bewail the absence of the crowned monarchs, and think that 

 they have gone for ever. At the present day there are pro- 

 bably more adult stags in Newfoundland than ever there were, 

 but they take better care of themselves ; this is the opinion of 

 the Indians, and I believe the correct one, and as long as the 

 great central sanctuary is not invaded in summer, when the 

 females are bringing forth their young, and no other railway 

 is built to pierce their autumn trails to the south of the forest 

 belt, Newfoundland will always keep her deer, one of her 

 most valuable assets. 



From the central forests the migration commences early in 



