130 



FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



by the long stiff bristles which grow downwards at 

 the fetlock, curving forwards underneath between 

 the divisions, the cariboo is enabled to proceed over 

 crusted snow, to cross frozen lakes, or ascend icy pre- 

 cipices with an case which places him, when in flight, 

 beyond the reach of all enemies, except perhaps the 

 nimble and untiring wolf. 



The pace of the cariboo when started is like that of 

 the moose, a long, steady trot, breaking into a brisk walk 

 at intervals as the point of alarm is left behind. He 

 sometimes gallops, or rather bounds, for a short distance 

 at first ; this the moose never does. When thorouglily 

 alarmed, he will travel much further than the moose ; 

 the hunter having disturbed, missed, or slightly wounded 

 the latter, may, by following him up, very prol)ably g(!t 

 several chances again the same day. Such is seldom the 

 case in cariboo hunting, even in districts where the 

 animals arc rarely disturbed. Once off, unless wounded, 

 you do not see them again. 



The cariboo feeds principally on the Cladonia rangi- 

 ferina, with which barrens and all permanent clearings in 

 the fir forest are thickly carpeted, and which a})pears to 

 grow more luxuriantly in the sul)arctic regi(ms than in 

 more temperate latitudes. Mr. Hind, in "Explorations 

 in Labrador," describes the beauty and luxuriance of this 

 moss in the Laurentian country, " with admii'ation for 

 which," he says, " the traveller is inspired, as well as for 

 its wonderful adaptation to the climate, and its value as 

 a source of food to that mainstay of the Indian, and con- 

 sequently of the fur trade in these regions — the caribou." 

 The recently-announced discovery by a French chemist 

 who has succeeded in extracting alcohol in large quanti- 



