POINT OF VIEW TO THE VARIOUS CHIPEWYAN TRIBES. 261 



Eeindeer. (Rangifer.) — Two species inhabit this district, the Strong- 

 wood (R. caribou) and the Barren-ground (R. arcticus), which though very 

 nearly allied, are certainly distinct one from the other. 



The Strong-wood Eeindeer inhabit the thickly-wooded parts of the 

 district, particularly among and in the vicinity of the mountain ranges, 

 where they are of very large size. Though smaller than the Moose, these 

 deer are of considerable bulk, and weigh up to 300 lbs. In most particulars 

 they resemble the Barren-ground species, differing from it in the following 

 points : — smaller horns, darker colour, larger size, not being so gregarious, 

 and not migrating. Both species are equally infested with the larvse of a 

 kind of gad-fly, which perforate the skins, and cause the animals much 

 pain. These larva?, or others very similar to them, are also found under 

 the mucous membrane at the root of the tongue and in the nostrils, and I 

 have even found them in the brain. The only hides serviceable for con- 

 verting into leather are those of animals killed early in the winter, which 

 when subjected to a process similar to that detailed under the head of 

 Moose, and bleached in the frost instead of being smoked, furnish a most 

 beautiful, even, and white leather, which is used for shoe-tops, embroidered 

 with quills and silk. 



The Barren-ground Eeindeer, during the summer and spring months, 

 frequent the barren plains lying between the wooded country and the 

 shores of Hudson's Bay and the Arctic Sea. Their migrations, which are 

 performed with wonderful regularity, are as follows : They leave the 

 shelter of the woods in the end of March and beginning of April, and 

 resort to the plains where they feed on various kinds of lichens and mosses, 

 gradually moving northward until they reach the coast, where they bring 

 forth their young in the beginning of June ; in July they begin to retire 

 from the sea-board, and in October rest on the edge of the wood, where they 

 remain during the cold of winter. In the northward movement the females 

 lead, while the southward migration is almost invariably headed by a 

 patriarchal male. The horns of these deer are much varied in shape, 

 scarcely any two animals having them precisely alike. The old males shed 

 theirs towards the end of December, the young males and barren females 

 in April, and the gravid females in May. Their hair falls in July, but 

 begins to loosen in May. The new coat is darkish brown and short ; but 

 it gradually lengthens, and becomes lighter in colour, until it obtains the 

 slate-grey tint of winter. A full grown buck will weigh about a hundred- 

 Weight ; the flesh, when in prime condition, is very sweet, but bucks, when 

 in season, have their fat strongly impregnated with the flavour of garlic, 

 which, indeed, is always present more or less. The summer food of the 

 Reindeer is lichens, moss, and coarse grass ; in the winter it consists of the 

 dried hay of the swamps, and the hairy moss adhering to the pine trees. 

 I have seen it stated that these animals in the winter, in order to procure 

 food, shovel away the snow from the ground with their horns, but this 

 theory, however plausible, is entirely negatived by the facts of the case, for 

 from my own knowledge, and all that I can learn, both from whites and 



