REINDEER FOR LABRADOR 269 



the skin line that held them, and so escaped. But as a 

 rule they have at once found the herd and returned to it, 

 even though it may have been feeding many miles away at 

 the time. At other times, certain deer have shown a pro- 

 pensity to select certain particular spots for grazing, and 

 have repeatedly left the main herd and returned to the 

 ground of their own selection. The main herd, as a rule, 

 get up and feed from daylight to about 11 A.M., then lie 

 down and rest until about 4 P.M., about which hour a stag 

 would get up and walk round restlessly. If he came too 

 near another, the latter would strike viciously at him with his 

 head, as if deploring the fact that the time had arrived for 

 renewed activity. He would, however, soon arise as if 

 under protest, and join the moving group till all the herd 

 was afoot. Then, without apparently any reason, it would 

 seem to occur to a stag that to migrate ten miles northwest 

 or southeast would be advantageous, and off he would go 

 at a staid walk, the whole herd falling in and following him 

 like a funeral procession. 



The time for fawning came with May, and Mr. Lindsay 

 took the deer to highlands as free as possible of the then 

 treacherous brooks and lakes, which were opening beneath 

 the spring sun. Our herd was now reduced to two hundred 

 does and fifty stags, for we had sent south the fifty deer 

 sold to a large lumber concern, three hundred miles to the 

 south. These latter had all reached their destination safely 

 after their long march, only one stag dying after arrival. 

 They were to be used for carrying supplies over snow to 

 far-off logging camps. 



As far as we could count, the does threw one hundred and 

 sixty-eight fawns, and of these only eight were born dead or 



