THE INDIANS 213 
In the southern half of the peninsula the common blue- 
berry grows abundantly in burnt areas, and constitutes 
an important crop to both bears and Indians. At con- 
venient places the outgoing families burn fresh areas each 
spring, as the yield falls away after two or three crops. 
Coming up river in the early fall, the families camp ata 
suitable distance from their berry farm, and the men make 
a kind of surround hunt for bears. Sometimes as many 
as fifteen are taken in a few days. Then the women and 
children turn in for the berries. A good deal of blueberry 
cake is made, the berries being stewed in a kettle until they 
will hold together, and then dried. The name of the cake 
means “like liver,”’ from its final appearance; it will keep 
indefinitely. The blueberry is minish, the “little-berry.” 
Formerly the barren-ground bear ranged rather widely 
in the northern districts. The last one reported was killed 
near the Barren-groundland Lake of the George about the 
year 1894. Peter McKenzie, who has bought their ski 
at Chimo, says the hair was very dark, even black. Both 
Eskimo and Indian regard it as aggressive and dangerous, 
though the Eskimo tales at least need not be taken too 
seriously. They are afraid of the common black bear, 
being unfamiliar with it. The much more formidable white 
bear they make little of, attacking him readily with hand 
weapons. No complete skin of the barren-ground bear of 
Labrador has been examined; the species is probably 
extinct now, and while it is not unlikely to have been a 
variety of grizzly, its identity may never be established. 
The caribou range from Hudson Strait to the coast at 
Belle Isle Strait, where they sometimes mix with the larger 
woodland species. The migrations do not hold together 
