366 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 



arms, but each was provided with his bow and arrows. The 

 deer came on ; the Indians lay in the snow, ready to shoot. The 

 unsuspecting animals darted past the hunters like the wind, but 

 each received an arrow, and one dropped. Instantly taking a 

 fresh arrow, they waited for the wolves. With a long and steady 

 gallop, these ravenous creatures followed their prey, but when 

 they came within ten yards of the Indians, the latter suddenly 

 rose, each discharged an arrow at the amazed brutes, and suc- 

 ceeded in transfixing one with a second arrow before it could get 

 out of reach. Leaving the wolves, they hastened after the 

 Caribou. There," said Louis (the interpreter), " quite close to 

 that steep rock, the Caribou which Michel had shot was dead ; 

 he had shot it in the eye, and it could not go far. Michel 

 stopped to guard his Caribou, as the wolves were about ; one of 

 his cousins went after the deer he had hit ; the other went back 

 after the wolves which had been wounded. The wolf cousin had 

 not gone far back when he heard a loud yelling and howling. 

 He knew what the wolves were at : they had turned upon their 

 wounded companion, and were quarreling over the meal. The 

 Indian ran on and came quite close to the wolves, who made so 

 much noise, and were so greedily devouring the first he had shot, 

 that he approached quite close to them and shot another, killing 

 it at once. The Caribou cousin had to go a long distance before 

 he got his deer." 



THE BAEEEN-GROUND CARIBOU. 



The Barren-ground Caribou is never an object of pursuit by the 

 mere sportsman. His habitat is so remote from civilization, and 

 so inaccessible, that he is sought only as a matter of business and 

 not of pleasure. Only the Indian and the fur trader frequent his 

 haunts, and they hunt him for his meat and his pelt. 



In its southern range, this deer finds forest lands which it in- 

 habits during the winter season, making excursions into the 

 mossy plains for food, but in its northern migration in the sum- 

 mer, it goes beyond the forest regions, and dwells upon the bar- 

 ren grounds exclusively, where it finds an abundance of lichens, 

 which are its favorite food. 



Dr. Richardson says : ^ " The Chepewyans, the Copper Indians, 

 the Dog-ribs and Hare Indians of Great Bear Lake, would be 

 totally unable to inhabit their barren lands, were it not for the 

 immense herds of this deer that exist there." 



1 Fauna Boreali Americana, p. 244. 



