BARKEN GROUND CARIBOU 



137 



down to Hamilton Inlet. From Ellesmere Land, 

 five skins of a white animal with a gray back 

 have been described as Peary's Caribou, 1 and 

 from at least four points in Ellesmere Land, Cari- 

 bou have been reported. 



Along the northwest coast of Greenland, es- 

 pecially between Melville Bay and Kane Basin, 

 Commander Peary found a fair abundance of 

 caribou, and at Liverpool Bay, on the east coast, 

 a number were killed by a Danish expedition, in 

 1900. 



Habits. — One of the habits of the Barren 

 Ground Caribou is particularly striking. At 

 stated periods, in spring and autumn, they as- 

 semble in immense herds, and migrate en masse 

 with the compactness and definiteness of purpose 

 of an army of cavalry on a march. This is most 

 noticeable on the Canadian Barren Grounds, 

 which by reason of its summer pasturage and the 

 absence of water barriers, encourages the display 

 of natural instinct. The observations of several 

 travellers north of the Great Slave Lake have 

 resulted in the belief that "in spring the Barren 

 Ground Caribou seek the coast of the Arctic 

 Ocean, and remain near the salt water until about 

 September." But this idea is much too circum- 

 scribed. 



The explorations of Mr. J. B. Tyrrell, of the 

 Canadian Geological Survey, have proved con- 

 clusively that the universal herd of the Great 

 Slave Lake region does exactly as did the uni- 

 versal buffalo herd of 1S71. It moves north- 

 ward in spring for a given distance only, stops 

 at will, spends the summer, and in the early 

 winter moves southward. On July 30, 1S93, Mr. 

 Tyrrell saw a vast assemblage of Barren Ground 

 Caribou at Carey Lake (Latitude 62° lC and 

 Longitude 102° 45'), nearly 500 miles from the 

 Arctic coast. A herd of several thousand ani- 

 mals was composed of females with young fawns, 

 young females and males of all ages, the lofty 

 antlers of the latter being noticeably prominent. 

 This herd was then only sixty miles north of the 

 southern edge of the Barren Grounds. 



The most impressive published description of 

 a caribou migration is from the pen of Mr. War- 

 burton Pike. It is a relation of what he saw on 

 Lake Camsell, sixty miles north of the eastern 

 end of Great Slave Lake, in 1889, and refers to 

 the southward movement to the timbered regions, 

 1 Rangifer pearyi. 



where the lichens growing upon the trees afford 

 subsistence in winter when the ground mosses 

 are buried under snow and ice. 



"From what I could gather from the Yellow- 

 Knife Indians," says Mr. Pike in "The Barren 

 Grounds of Northern Canada," "and from my 

 own personal experience, it is late in October 

 that the great bands of Caribou, commonly 

 known as La joule, mass upon the edge of the 

 woods, and start for the food and shelter afforded 

 by the stronger growth of pine farther south- 

 ward. 



"Scattered bands of Caribou were almost 

 always in sight from the top of the ridge behind 

 the camps, and increased in numbers till the 

 morning of October 20, when little Baptiste, who 

 had gone for firewood, woke us before daylight 

 with the cry, ' La joule ! La joule !' (The throng.) 

 Even in the lodge we could hear the curious clat- 

 ter made by a band of travelling Caribou. La 

 joule had really come, and during its passage of 

 six days, I was able to realize what an extra- 

 ordinary number of these animals still roam 

 the Barren Grounds. 



"From the ridge we had a splendid view of 

 the migration. All the south side of Mackay 

 Lake was alive with the moving beasts, while 

 the ice seemed to be dotted all over with black 

 islands, and still away on the north shore, with 

 the aid of the glasses, we could see them coming 

 like regiments on the march. In every direction 

 we could hear the grunting noise that the Cari- 

 bou always makes when travelling. 



"The snow was broken into broad roads, and 

 I found it useless to try to estimate the number 

 that passed within a few miles of our encamp- 

 ment. We were just in the western edge of their 

 passage, and afterward we heard that a band of 

 Dog-Ribs, hunting some forty miles to the west, 

 were at this very time in the last straits of starva- 

 tion, only saving their lives by a hasty retreat to 

 the woods. This is a common danger in the 

 autumn, as the Caribou, coming in from the 

 Barren Grounds, join together in one vast herd, 

 and do not scatter much till they reach the thick 

 timber. 



"The Caribou, as is usually the case when 

 they are in large numbers, were very tame, and 

 on several occasions I found myself right in the 

 middle of a band, with a splendid chance to pick 

 out any that seemed in good condition. . . . 



