The Caribou 271 



fruitless chase at such seasons after this caribou, 

 wiser and sadder men. 



In Newfoundland great herds of caribou have 

 roamed for a longer period than the mind of man 

 can fathom; and from their heavy antlers and 

 some other slight characters these animals have 

 been characterized as a distinct species. Migrat- 

 ing regularly to the southward in the autumn 

 and northward in the spring, favorable oppor- 

 tunities were given to hunters to watch for them 

 on their usual routes and kill as many as they 

 pleased, for they are gentle animals in that island 

 and permit one to approach closely before mak- 

 ing an effort to escape. But this misplaced 

 confidence in the deer's greatest enemy was fear- 

 fully abused, and a single butcher (no other term 

 will properly designate the creature), as I have 

 been informed, killed as many as forty to fifty deer 

 in a single foray, leaving most of the carcasses to 

 rot upon the ground. Then the legislature in- 

 tervened and passed a law compelling all non- 

 residents of the island to pay a large sum for a 

 permit to shoot deer, and limiting the number of 

 animals that could be killed. Prospects for the 

 caribou looked brighter, and for some years only 

 a fairly reasonable number were killed annually, 

 the limitation in the number that could be shot 

 having cooled the ardor of those whose chief 

 delight was in the shedding of blood and piling 



