Trail and Camp-Fire 



southward. In doing so it divides into about 

 equal parts, one portion following the coast, 

 the other passing inland and wintering in the 

 partly wooded country about the headwaters 

 of the Hamilton and Ungava rivers. There 

 appear to be great fluctuations in the size of 

 the bands, and at times they almost disappear 

 for a number of years, as was the case with 

 the Ungava band in 1892, when, after a year 

 of great slaughter, the deer failed to return, 

 and in consequence the Indians, who depend 

 upon them for food and clothing, were re- 

 duced to such straits that upward of 175 per- 

 sons died of starvation and exposure. I have 

 found in the old journals of the Hudson Bay 

 Company that similar calamities have hap- 

 pened two or three times during the present 

 century, caused directly by the indiscriminate 

 slaughter by the Indians, who either nearly 

 exterminated the band, or, as they believe, 

 frightened away the deer by the stench of the 

 decaying bodies lying about everywhere. The 

 destruction of the Indians follows that of the 

 deer, and then the latter have a chance to in- 

 crease, as in the case with the Ungava herd 

 at present, where, after two or three years of 

 practical disappearance, the increase is becom- 



38 



