A NEWFOUNDLAND CARIBOU-HUNT 



and the waters of the lake rose a number of feet from the 

 effects of the rains. Heavy storms were raging at sea all this 

 time, and drove numbers of sea-birds as far inland as the lake. 

 When the weather became more favorable we found that the 

 caribou were at last moving southward. Howe was obliged to 

 go home, but while rowing down Sandy River managed to pick 

 a fair-sized head out of a band of fifteen caribou which were 

 about to cross the stream in migrating. 



The first comparatively clear day Tom and I rowed across 

 the lake, and after travelling along an ancient trappers' trail 

 through the snow-laden spruces for an hour and a half, emerged 

 into the open barrens which extended to the north. We hunted 

 these snow-covered wastes for three days, and although we saw 

 large numbers of caribou — among them many bulls — ^none had 

 the required head. The caribou had started to migrate very 

 late this year, and as the Newfoundland animals shed their 

 antlers much earlier than those on the continent, and the old 

 bulls drop theirs first, we noticed a number of these larger 

 animals which had already shed one or both antlers. These 

 hornless old bulls presented a foolish appearance, but it was not 

 difficult to finger the trigger of the carbine and imagine what 

 magnificent sets of antlers they might have carried the week 

 before. Of the numerous cows which passed us, a much larger 

 proportion seemed perennially hornless than among herds of 

 cow caribou in eastern or northwestern North America. A 

 large proportion of bulls and cows were of the light-colored, 

 Newfoundland type of caribou, but there were also many ani- 

 mals as dark as the mountain caribou of the Northwest. 



An attempt which Tom, John, and I made one night to sleep 

 under the shelter of a rubber blanket stretched between two 

 swaying spruces, during a raging blizzard, convinced us that 

 our main camp was a very pleasant spot. Early the next 

 morning we tramped down to the shores of the lake, and spent 

 the remainder of the day in camp recovering from the effects 



91 



