2 3 8 



RECREATION 



writer has passed by many a fair head 

 with merely a passing glance in New- 

 foundland, the sight of which in New 

 Brunswick or Quebec would have been 

 the signal for an anxious stalk. Hence 

 we must not condemn Rangifer Caribou 

 as being inferior to R. Terranovcc, 

 simply because our hunting trip in pur- 

 suit of the latter proved the more sue- 



either event, many generations must 

 have elapsed since this separation from 

 the parent stock took place, for the 

 caribou of to-day present several dis- 

 tinctive variations from the continental 

 type. 



At present they are abundant — more 

 so, perhaps, than throughout any equal 

 area in the world, a condition which is 



CAMP ON GEORGE'S POND. 



cessful ; for many an old bull roams 

 the forest of Eastern Canada fully as 

 heavy and well antlered as the best from 

 the island. 



It is possible that the caribous from 

 Newfoundland have sprung from stock 

 which originally immigrated from the 

 peninsula of Labrador, either by swim- 

 ming the Straight of Belle Isle or cross- 

 ing it on the ice floes. But it is more 

 probable that at one time the island 

 formed part of the continent itself, the 

 herds finding easy access across a nar- 

 row isthmus to the north. However, in 



merely the result of natural laws. The 

 "struggle for existence" is not arduous, 

 for many of those factors which regu- 

 late "Nature's balance" are absent, and 

 the scales weigh heavy on the side of 

 the caribou. Over thirty thousand 

 square miles of moss-covered barrens 

 afford unsurpassed pasturage. Further- 

 more, Newfoundland winters are far 

 milder than those of equal latitude on 

 the mainland, no doubt partly due to its 

 insular position, partly to the moder- 

 ating influences of the Gulf Stream. 

 Indians are rapidly dying off ; and 



