FAREWELL TO THE CARIBOU 



259 



were in passing this point; but at another place they 

 were four days, and travelled day and night. The 

 whole world seemed a moving mass of Caribou. He 

 got the impression at last that they were standing still 

 and he was on a rocky hill that was rapidly running 

 through their hosts. 



Even halving these figures, to keep on the safe side, 

 we find that the number of Caribou in this army was 

 over 25,000,000. Yet it is possible that there are sev- 

 eral such armies. In which case they must indeed out- 

 number the Buffalo in their palmiest epoch. So much 

 for their abundance to-day. To what extent are they 

 being destroyed? I looked into this question with care. 



First, of the Indian destruction. In 1812 the Chipe- 

 wyan population, according to Kennicott, was 7,500. 

 Thomas Anderson, of Fort Smith, showed me a census 

 of the Mackenzie River Indians, which put them at 

 3,961 in 1884. Official returns of the Canadian govern- 

 ment give them in 1905 at 3,411, as follows: 



Peel . . . 



Arctic Red River 



Good Hope. 



Norman 



Wrigley 



Simpson 



Rae 



Liard and Nelson 



Yellowknives 



Dogribs 



Chipewyans 



Hay River . 



400 

 100 

 500 

 300 

 100 

 300 

 800 

 400 

 151 

 123 

 123 

 114 



3,411 



