OF THE LARGE AMERICAN MAMMALS 227 
hanging in my wood-shed, but back in the woods I have a 
little shack where I keep the others until I want them.” 
The real sportsmen of the world never will make the 
slightest perceptible impression on the caribou of Newfound- 
land. For one thing, the hunting is much too tame to be 
interesting. If the caribou of that island ever are extermi- 
nated, it will be strictly by the people of Newfoundland them- 
selves, If the Government will tighten its grip on the herds, 
they need never be exterminated. 
The caribou of New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario are 
few and widely scattered. Unless carefully conserved they 
are not likely to last long; for their country is annually pene- 
trated in every direction by armed men, white and red. There 
is no means by which it can be proven, but from the number 
of armed men in those regions I feel sure that the typical 
woodland caribou species is being shot faster than it is breed- 
ing. The sportsmen and naturalists of Canada, and espe- 
cially those of New Brunswick, would render good service by 
making a close and careful investigation of that question. . 
The caribou of the northwestern wilderness are in a situ- 
ation peculiarly their own. They inhabit a region of naked 
mountains and thin forests, wherein they are conspicuous, 
easily stalked and easily killed. Nowhere do they exist in 
large herds of thousands, or even of many hundreds. They 
live in small bands of from ten to twenty head, and even 
those are far apart. The region in which they live is certain 
to be thoroughly opened up by railways and exploited. Fifty 
years from now we shall find every portion of the now wild 
Northwest fairly accessible by rail. The building of the 
