142 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



[NO. 27. 



their trip northward from Reindeer Lake, the animals were first seen, 

 near Ennadai Lake, on August 14, and were then moving southward 

 in large numbers." 



Frank Russell, who passed the winter of 1893-94 at Fort Rae, 

 says, concerning the Barren Ground caribou : 



A few years ago * * * they were often killed from the buildings, and 

 throughout the winter might be found near the post. In 1877 an unbroken line 

 of caribou crossed the frozen lake near the fort. They were fourteen days in 

 passing and in such a mass that, in the words of an eyewitness, " daylight 

 could not be seen " through the column. They are now seldom seen within 

 several miles of Rae." ^ 



During the winter he spent there only one small band crossed the 

 lake toward the west.^ Concerning their abundance about the mouth 

 of the Mackenzie, he says: 



West of the Mackenzie they are still abundant along the barren coast and in 

 the mountains south of it. They migrate southward in autumn, but how far is 

 not known. Rampart House was a " deer post," being situated in a pass trav- 

 ersed semiannually by the caribou. 



The whalers reported that the caribou were abundant among the islands 

 between the mouth of the Mackenzie and Cape Bathurst in July, 1894.'^ 



W. J. McLean states that in 1899 the caribou arrived in the neigh- 

 borhood of old Fort Reliance, Great Slave Lake, on August 12.^ 



A. J. Stone, who studied the caribou of northern Mackenzie in 

 1898-99, says : 



The mighty Mackenzie seems to form, throughout its entire length, a well- 

 defined dividing line between eastern and western herds; in fact, we find that 

 at most points this dividing line is a broad belt of country, in places more 

 than one hundred miles wide. The herds that reach the coast in the spring, to 

 the west and east of the Mackenzie Delta, never approach each other nearer 

 than 75 miles, and rarely so near as this. 



He was informed that the caribou to the east of the Mackenzie are 

 considerably larger than those to the westward.^ On May 12, 1899, 

 he saw a herd of about twenty-five female caribou near Franklin 

 Bay ; " they were travelling northward at a fair pace and were among 

 the advance guard to reach the coast." ^ He considers that the 

 animals are fast being exterminated in that quarter, principally on 

 account of the demand for meat at the trading posts, and at the win- 

 tering places of the whalers along the Arctic coast.'^ 



«Ann. Rept. Can. Geol. Surv., IX (new ser.), p. 19F, 1898. 



» Expl. in Far North, p. 88, 1898. 



« Ibid., p. 226, 1898. 



^ Ibid., pp. 226, 227, 1898. 



^Hist. and Sci. Soc. of Manitoba, Trans. 58, p. [5], Feb., 1901. 



f Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XIII, p. 51, 1900. 



9 Ibid., p. 53, 1900. 



^ Ibid., pp. 56, 57, 1900. 



