MAMMALIA.  ~ 243 
which hang from the trees, and on the long grass of the swamps. About the end 
of April, when the partial melting of the snow has softened the cetrarie, cornicularia, 
and cenomyces, which clothe the barren-grounds like a carpet, they make short 
excursions from the woods, but return to them when the weather is frosty. In 
May the females proceed towards the sea-coast, and towards the end of June the 
rales are in full march in the same direction. At that period the power of the 
_ sun has dried up the lichens on the barren-grounds, and the Caribou frequent the 
moist pastures which cover the bottoms of the narrow vallies on the coasts and 
islands of the Arctic Sea, where they graze on the sprouting carices, and on the 
withered grass or hay of the preceding year, which is at that period still standing, 
and retaining part of its sap. Their spring journey is performed partly on the 
snow, and partly, after the snow has disappeared, on the ice covering the rivers 
and lakes, which have, in general, a northerly direction. Soon after their arrival 
on the coast the females drop their young ; they commence their return to the 
south in September, and reach the vicinity of the woods towards the end of October, 
where they are joined by the males. This journey takes place after the snow has 
fallen, and they scrape it away with their feet to procure the lichens, which are 
then tender and pulpy, being preserved moist and unfrozen by the heat still 
remaining in the earth. Except in the rutting season, the bulk of the males and 
females live separately: the former retire deeper into the woods in the winter, 
whilst herds of the pregnant does stay on the skirts of the Barren Grounds, and 
proceed to the coast very early in spring. Captain Parry saw deer on Melville 
Peninsula as late as the 23d of September, and the females, with their fawns, 
made their first appearance on the 22d of April. The males in general do not go 
so far north as the females. On the coast of Hudson’s Bay the Barren-Ground 
Caribou migrate further south than those on the Coppermine or Mackenzie Rivers ; 
but none of them go to the southward of Churchill. 
The lichens, on which the Caribou principally feed whilst on the Barren-Grounds, 
are the cornicularia tristis, divergens, and ochrileuca, the cetraria nivalis, cucullata, 
and islandica, and the cenomyce rangiferina. When in condition, there is a layer 
of fat deposited on the back and rump of the males to the depth of two or three 
inches or more, immediately under the skin, which is termed depowillé by the 
Canadian voyagers ; and as an article of Indian trade, it is often of more value 
than all the remainder of the carcass. The depowillé is thickest at the commence- 
ment of the rutting season ; it then becomes of a red colour, and acquires a high 
flavour, and soon afterwards disappears. The females at that period are lean; 
but in the course of the winter they acquire a small depowille, which is exhausted. 
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