THE CHASE. 365 



have their regular trails and runways, which they pursue in their 

 regular migrations, always crossing the streams at favorite fords. 

 In these migrations the deer march in small bands, in single file, 

 generally several feet apart, in well beaten paths. Their march 

 is leisurely made, and rather slow, frequently picking the lichens 

 as they pass, unless they observe something to excite their sus- 

 picions. This is the time for the natives to make their harvest 

 of meat. The greatest opportunity is at the ford of a broad 

 stream. 



Dr. Richardson, in treating of the Woodland Caribou, says : 

 " Mr. Hutchins mentions that he has seen eighty carcasses of this 

 kind of deer brought into York Factory in one day, and many 

 others were refused for the want of salt to preserve them. These 

 were killed when in the act of crossing Hays River, and the na- 

 tives continued to destroy them, for the sake of the skins, long 

 after they had stored up more meat than they required. I have 

 been informed by several of the residents of York Factory that 

 the herds are sometimes so large as to require several hours to 

 cross the river in a crowded phalanx." 



On the island of Newfoundland, this deer is equally migratory ; 

 but necessarily its migrations are more limited territorially, ex- 

 cept in the few instances when they cross the broad waters which 

 separate the island from Labra,dor, in the winter on the ice ; but 

 this rather facilitates than impedes this mode of capture by the 

 natives, for it compels them to pursue their travels within more 

 defined routes, and so they are the more easily waylaid and 

 destroved. 



In the interior of Labrador this deer, especially in the winter 

 season, contributes largely to the sustenance of the natives, who 

 still pursue it with the bow and arrow with some degree of suc- 

 cess. Hind, standing on the divide between the waters of the 

 Miosie and the Ashwanipi, listened to the story of the Indian, 

 Michel, the theatre of which lay before them, and gives it thus : 

 "He had been watching for some hours with his compaxiion when 

 they heard the clatter of hoofs over the rocks. Looking in a 

 direction from which they least expected Caribou would come, 

 they saw two Caribou, pursued by a small band of wolves, mak- 

 ing directly for the spot where they were lying. Thej^ were 

 not more than three hundred yards away, and coming with tre- 

 mendous bounds, and fast increasing the distance between them- 

 selves and the wolves, who had evidently surprised them only a 

 short time before. Neither Michel nor his companion had fire- 



