76 BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA. 



ance, many times escaping from the Indian hunters after 

 the fatigue and starvation inseparable from four or five 

 days of a continued following-up hunt. When the hunted 

 animal gets upon glare-ice, over which he can trot at a rate 

 that would double upon the fleetest skater, the hunter is 

 obliged to abandon the chase. 



The Caribou is a shy and exceedingly wary animal, and 

 is most difficult to still-hunt; neither can he be successfully 

 hunted in deep snow, he being enabled to go over its sur- 

 face, upon his broad, flat hoofs, like a hare. So far as I 

 have been able to learn, it is only time lost to attempt to 

 hunt the Caribou with dogs. The hounds might follow the 

 scent, but they would scarcely ever be in at the death, as it 

 is a well-known fact that dogs can not drive .them to 

 water. They are, however, successfully still-hunted by 

 Indians, and also by white hunters skilled in the craft. 

 Large numbers of them are sometimes slaughtered, when 

 discovered swimming across a lake or river, in their migra- 

 tions. I have heard of fourteen having been killed by a 

 camp of Indians, as they were crossing the River du 

 Lievers, in a few minutes. 



The Caribou is still to be found in considerable numbers 

 on the last-named river as close as sixty or seventy miles 

 from its confluence with the Ottawa; also on the Gatineau 

 River above the Desert, and in more limited numbers above 

 Pembroke, in the neighborhood of Black River, and on the 

 shores of Lake Mpissing. They are also plentiful on both 

 sides of the St. Lawrence, beyond Rividre du Loup, below 

 Quebec, and are abundant on the. northern shores of Lake 

 Superior. I have no recollection of Caribou having been 

 met with in any numbers on the south shores of the Ottawa 

 River. Odd ones have been occasionally seen many years 

 ago. In each of such cases the animals had evidently 

 strayed from the north side, which has always been their 

 true and natural habitat. 



The skin of the Caribou, when tanned, is made into moc- 

 casins, and in the raw state is used in the manufacture of 

 snow-shoes. It is fine, thin, tough, and durable. Frank 



