242 



A JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



first begins to melt on the sides of the hills, and early in May, when 

 large patches of the ground are visible, they are on the banks of the 

 Copper-Mine River. The females take the lead in this spring 

 migration, and bring forth their young on the sea-coast about the 

 end of May or beginning of June. There are certain spots or passes 

 well known to the Indians, through which the deer invariably pass 

 in their migrations to and from the coast, and it has been observed 

 that they always travel against the wind. The principal food of 

 the rein-deer in the barren grounds, consists of the cetraria nivalis 

 and cucullata, cenomyce rangiferina, cornicularia ochrileuca, and other 

 lichens, and they also eat the hay or dry grass which is found in the 

 swamps in autumn. In the woods they feed on the different lichens 

 which hang from the trees. They are accustomed to gnaw their 

 fallen antlers, and are said also to devour mice. 



The weight of a full grown barren-ground deer, exclusive of the 

 offal, varies from ninety to one hundred and thirty pounds. There 

 is, however, a much larger kind found in the woody parts of the 

 country, whose carcass weighs from two hundred to two hundred 

 and forty pounds. This kind never leaves the woods, but its skin 

 is as much perforated by the gad-fly as that of the others; a pre- 

 sumptive proof that the smaller species are not driven to the sea- 

 coast by the attacks of that insect. There are a few rein-deer 

 occasionally killed in the spring, whose skins are entire, and these 

 are always fat, whereas the others are lean at that season. The 

 gad-fly does not confine its attacks to the skin of the back, but 

 deposits its ova in the mucous membrane also, which lines the 

 nostrils and fauces. This insect likewise infests the red-deer 

 (wawaskeesh,) but its ova are not found in the skin of the moose, 

 or buffalo, nor, as we have been informed, of the sheep and goat that 

 inhabit the rocky mountains, although the rein-deer found in those 

 parts, (which by the way, are of an unusually large kind,) are as 

 much tormented by them as the barren-ground variety. 



