BARREN GROUND CARIBOU 97 
that the Woodland Caribou are not numerous anywhere in 
the Canadian Northwest Territories, for in all my travels for 
the Geological Survey of Canada, extending over the period 
from 1883 to 1898, I did not see a dozen of those animals, 
though on hundreds of different occasions I saw their great 
wide-spreading tracks. 'The only one I ever shot was feeding 
on a rocky hill, beside a stream that flows into the east 
side of Lake Winnipeg; and his head is now hanging in the 
Museum of the Geological Survey, in Ottawa. 
“The smaller species of Caribou lives on the Barren 
Grounds during the summer. On the approach of winter 
most of the animals migrate southward to the edge of the 
forest, though some remain throughout the winter on the 
open barrens. 
“Twice, in 1893 and 1894, I met what is known as ‘the 
herd,’ on its way southward, once on a good feeding ground, 
where hundreds of thousands were collected together, and 
again on a rough, rocky tract where the individual bands 
rarely exceeded a few hundred in number, and all were on 
the run.” 
Barren Ground Caribou Group 
Throughout a vast and very hungry sweep of northlands, 
the Barren Grounp Carrisou! long has been, and still is, 
an animal of leading interest and value. To many Indian 
tribes, such as the Dog-Ribs and Yellow Knives, and to many 
of the Eskimo tribes also, it has been an important source 
of subsistence, both in food and clothing. It is so peculiarly 
1 Ran‘gi-fer arc'ti-cus. 
