88 BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA. 



Caribou could get beyond his range of vision in half an 

 hour. There can be no doubt that the Caribou is the cham- 

 pion trotter of America. 



The general character of the island of Newfoundland is 

 that of a rugged and barren country, with hills never exceed- 

 ing one thousand feet in height. Large lakes and ponds, 

 the breeding-grounds of geese, gulls, and ducks, are so 

 numerous that, probably one-eighth of the entire island is 

 under water. The uneven surface of the land is covered by 

 woods, marshes, and barrens. The trees consist of fir, spruce, 

 pine, 'juniper, birch, witch-hazel, mountain ash, aspen, and 

 alder. The marshes are as often upon the sloping sides of . 

 the hills as in hollows, the moisture being held in suspen- 

 sion by a deep coating of moss, which renders walking, 

 under a load, extremely laborious. The barrens are in many 

 places interspersed with large patches of " tucking-bushes," 

 or dwarf juniper, which grow about breast-high, with 

 strong branches stiffly interlaced^so firm that you can 

 almost walk on them — and the labor of struggling through 

 them beggars description. 



The "Bethuk," or "Boeothic"— the aboriginal "Red 

 Indians" — so named from the Deer's fat and red ochre 

 pigments with which they anointed their bodies — are now 

 extinct, although the miles of Deer-trap fences made by 

 these people; and which are still in a fair state of preserva- 

 tion, prove them to have been numerous in the early part of 

 the present century. 



During the summer months the Caribou are to be found in 

 the woods to the northward; but every fall they migrate, in 

 vast herds, to the barren hills near the southern shore, where 

 the comparative less depth of snow and the winter thaws 

 enable them to obtain the moss and lichens upon which they 

 chiefly subsist. It was during such migrations that the 

 Indians used to slay the animals necessary for their winter 

 use, as they followed within the fences until the outlet ter- 

 minated in a lake, when the animals fell an easy prey to the 

 arrows and spears of their ambushed and canoed foes. 



