2048 The Zoologist — March, 1870. 



The horns of the cariboo vary, I think, more than those of any 

 other species of deer with which T am acquainted. The specimen 

 figured by Professor Baird (No. 900, p. 304) is neither so large nor so 

 well formed as many 1 saw in Newfoundland, but may perhaps be 

 taken quite as an average specimen; in fact, I never saw two adult 

 stags with horns exactly alike. The largest which came under ray 

 observation belonged to an immense old stag that was shot by the 

 eldest of the Paynes who went on the hills with me : the points of 

 these horns when the skull was reversed on the shoulders of a man 

 five feet ten inches in height touched the gro\nid : this magnificent 

 pair of antlers are now bleaching or bleached on the hills above 

 Parson's Pond. I possess a pair with thirty-two points, including 

 those on one brow-antler, which is palmated, while the other is a 

 mere snag: these horns, with just sufficient skull left to hold tlieui 

 together, weighed thirty pounds. 1 have seen others perfectly 

 straight, like those of' a pricket, and with the brow-antlers of similar 

 form. I have previously mentioned the tenacity of life in this species 

 of deer: as a further illustration of this fact I may mention that my 

 host at Cow Head killed a cariboo, in the heart of which was im- 

 bedded a large buck-shot the size of a large pistol-bullet, and, from 

 the hard callous appearance of the surrounding parts, seemed to have 

 been there many months, and perhaps years : the slag was in good 

 condition : at least four other settlers testified to this fact. 



A barbarous practice was in vogue among the half- French settlers 

 in the Bay of Islands a few years since. The cariboo on their 

 southern migration (for deer as well as birds, and even fish, migrate 

 partially from these cold regions on the approach of a severe winter) 

 were in the habit of swimming across a narrow part of a large lake 

 called the " Deer Pond," on the banks of which, at that season, were 

 bidden both men and canoes. When a herd had entered the water 

 and swam sufficiently far to admit of pursuit, the canoes were hastily 

 launched, and the chase began. On coming up with the deer, knives 

 were drawn and dec]i gashes made on the rum]) of each deer to 

 ascertain which were fattest, and these instantly killed with toma- 

 hawks, while scores of wounded and bleeding animals were allowed 

 to escape. The slain, perhaps sixty or seventy in number, were then 

 collected and towed to the liumber river, which flowed from the Deer 

 Pond to the settlement, some fifteen miles, and thence into the sea. 

 As the Humber on this part has some rapids and cascades it does not 

 admit of canoe navigation, and the deer were consequent!}' allowed to 



