The Caribou 279 



and the rest are determined to follow the lead 

 set them. So many caribou have been slaugh- 

 tered on the barrens and tundras of the Arctic 

 regions, both east and west of the mountains, 

 that in certain districts their numbers have 

 been greatly reduced, and in some the animals 

 have disappeared altogether. In Alaska not 

 many years ago caribou were plentiful down to 

 the shores of Bering Sea, but now one must 

 travel in many places something like a hundred 

 miles inland before finding them in any number. 

 On the Kenai Peninsula and surrounding dis- 

 tricts head hunters, both white and red, have 

 nearly exterminated the species, and the in- 

 creased means of transportation to and through 

 their country, the large number of hunters, added 

 greatly to annually, and the improved firearms, 

 would seem to foretell the extinction in a brief 

 period of this fine animal in the regions where 

 he is accessible. 



Caribou, like all deer, shed their horns every 

 year, the time when this takes place varying 

 apparently slightly according to locality ; but be- 

 tween the beginning of December and the middle 

 of January, with possibly very few exceptions, all 

 horns of bulls have been dropped, the exceptions 

 being some young bulls, that carry their horns 

 until spring. The old bulls shed first and then 

 the young males, the females often retaining 



