A FALL HUNTING TRIP. 85 



the line to the men's homes. But in the eyes of persons 

 who voyage some thousands of miles to hunt caribou the 

 " railway sport " is unlikely to offer many attractions. 

 Probably they may be inclined to echo the saying ascribed 

 to a famous hunter : " I have come all this way to hunt 

 caribou, not to allow caribou to hunt me ! " 



Until recently the opinion was commonly held that all 

 the caribou in the island grossed the line of railway during 

 their migrations, but since hunters have gone further afield 

 their observations tend to prove that this is by no means 

 the casa. Mr. F. C. Selous, the first of these hunters, shot 

 some large stags in the early September of 1901 close to 

 John's Pond, a spot where at that date no deer would have 

 been had the theory of a universal migration been correct. 



The deer of Newfoundland may be divided with some 

 accuracy into three main groups. The best known is that 

 herd which crosses the railway in its migration, going north 

 in spring and returning south in September and October. 

 The second herd, or, rather, vast body of deer, inhabits all 

 central Newfoundland from St. George's to Port Blandford 

 and migrates between the railway line as a northern limit 

 and the south coast. This herd is hunted by the Micmac 

 Indians, who have divided that part of the country into 

 hunting-grounds. These Indians are a branch of a Nova 

 Scotian tribe, who transferred themselves to the iriore 

 northerly island about the middle of the eighteenth century. 

 They do not resent the presence of hunters on their especial 

 districts, though probably if trappers interfered with their 

 rights there might be trouble. The third herd is a very 

 small one, and consists of the few deer that still survive in 

 the Avalon Peninsula, south of St. John's, and these do 

 not, I believe, migrate at all. 



In the vast interior of the country are thousands of 

 caribou which have probably never been within many miles 

 of the railroad, and it is towards these herds that one 



