Tbe Caribou 273 



brought into York Factory in one day and many 

 others were refused because they had no salt to 

 preserve them, but the Indians kept on slaying the 

 animals for the skins long after they had ceased 

 to care for the flesh. And this was in the days of 

 bows and arrows and spears, before the advent of 

 the magazine gun and long-range rifle. Weights 

 of individuals of the deer tribe, unless the animal 

 is placed upon the scales, are at best but guesses, 

 and in the absence of any authenticated figures 

 it may be said that a bull Woodland caribou from 

 the Canadian forests in prime condition may weigh 

 as much as five hundred pounds, but of course 

 the average weight will be much less, and probably 

 nearer three hundred to three hundred and fifty. 



The Barren-Ground caribou is a smaller ani- 

 mal than the Woodland, and the horns, although 

 perhaps of an equal spread in the majority of 

 instances, are lighter and more slender in beam 

 and tines, and with less palmation and fewer 

 points. This deer is a plain-dweller, and roams 

 over the vast tundras of the desolate Arctic 

 regions, its southern boundary line trending more 

 to the north as its range is extended to the west 

 even to the Coppermine and Mackenzie rivers, 

 and the northern limit of the Woodland caribou 

 is also pushed farther into the Arctic regions, 

 until the ranges of the two forms overlap and the 

 animals must mingle together. The winters are 



