258 THE ARCTIC PRAIRIES 



How are we to form an idea of their numbers? The 

 only way seems to be by watching the great migration 

 to its winter range. For the reasons already given this 

 was impossible in my case, therefore, I array some of 

 the known facts that will evidence the size of the herd. 



Warburton Pike, who saw them at Mackay Lake, 

 October 20, 1889, says: "I cannot believe that the 

 herds [of Buffalo] on the prairie ever surpassed in size 

 La Foule (the throng) of the Caribou. La Foule had 

 really come, and during its passage of six days I was 

 able to realize what an extraordinary number of these 

 animals still roam the Barren Grounds." 



From figures and facts given me by H. T. Munn, of 

 Brandon, Manitoba, I reckon that in three weeks fol- 

 lowing July 25, 1892, he saw at Artillery Lake (N. lati- 

 tude 62^°, W. Long. 112°) not less than 2,000,000 Car- 

 ibou travelling southward; he calls this merely ^ the 

 advance guard of the great herd. Colonel Jones (Buf- 

 falo Jones), who saw the herd in October at Clin- 

 ton-Colden, has given me personally a description that 

 furnishes the basis for an interesting calculation of their 

 numbers. 



He stood on a hill in the middle of the passing throng, 

 with a clear view ten miles each way and it was one 

 army of Caribou. How much further they spread, he 

 did not know. Sometimes they were bunched, so that 

 a hundred were on a space one, hundred feet square; 

 but often there would be spaces equally large without 

 any. They averaged at least one hundred Caribou to 

 the acre ; and they passed him at the rate of about 

 three miles an hour. He did not know how long they 



