1908.] 



MAMMALS. 



139 



at Fort McPherson during my stay there early in July, IQO-t, having 

 crossed the mountains on foot, had killed a few of these animals on 

 the way. 



As winter approaches, the caribou which have summered on the 

 Barren Groiuids move southward in herds, many of which enter the 

 wooded country. Their movements are more or less irregular, but 

 the following account, by Warburton Pike, seems to be approxi- 

 mately correct as applying to the animals to the eastward of the 

 Coppermine : 



From wliat I could gatlier from the Yellow Knife Indians at tlie east end of 

 the Great Slave Lake, and from my own personal experience, it was late in 

 October, immediately after the rutting season, that the great bands of caribou, 

 commonly known at La Foule, mass up on the edge of the woods, and start for 

 food and shelter afforded by the stronger growth of pines farther southward. 

 A month afterwards the males and females separate, the latter beginning to 

 work their way north again as early as the end of February; they reach the 

 edge of the woods in April, and drop their young far out toward the seacoast 

 in June, by which time the snow is melting rapidly and the ground showing 

 in patches. The males stay in the woods till May and never reach the coast, 

 but meet the females on their way inland at the end of July; from this time 

 they stay together till the rutting season is over and it is time to seek the 

 woods once rnore.^ 



AAliile the above account of the movements of the caribou is sub- 

 stantially correct, Hanbury has shown that many do not migrate in 

 the true sense of the word, but merely wander, and that the course 

 taken by the moving bands can never be predicted.^ 



The following notes, gleaned from various sources, show the gen- 

 eral distribution of the Barren Ground caribou in the region under 

 review, as well as other points in its history. Sabiaie says : " In- 

 habits the North Georgia Islands in the summer in considerable 

 numbers, arriving toward the middle of May, and retiring to the 

 south before the first week in October. In the course of the season 

 21 were killed." ^ During Franklin's first northern journe}^, this 

 species was first met with on the upper part of the Yellowknife 

 Kiver about the middle of August, 1820 ; toward the end of Septem- 

 ber it had become common about Fort Enterprise ; on October 10 an 

 estimated number of 2,000 were seen during a short walk in the 

 vicinity ; by October 26 they had departed southward ; but about the 

 middle of November, on account of warmer weather, they returned 

 to the neighborhood.^ During the following summer, while the 

 party was exploring the Arctic coast to the eastward of Coppermine 



« Barren Ground of Northern Canada, p. -15, 1892. In regard to habits of 

 this animal, see also various writings of Richardson ; Russell, Expl. in the Far 

 North, p. 225, 1898 ; Stone, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XIII, p. 49, 1900 ; etc. 



* Sport and Travel in Northland of Canada, pp. 120-122, 1904. 



^ Suppl. to Appendix Parry's First Voyage, p. cxc, 1824. 



^ Narrative Journey to Polar Sea, pp. 218-248, 1823. 



