THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
continent and islands it is necessary to point out that the habits of all these 
local races are much the same, and that the best time to meet with large 
numbers, from which alone it is possible to pick fine examples, is during 
the September-October migration. In most cases this is performed from 
north to south, but in some cases, as in Labrador and the extreme north, 
it has an easterly or westerly tendency. In most cases, however, it will be 
found that the best caribou are not strictly migratory and frequent the 
same forests or high plateaux at all seasons, so that the hunter can go direct 
to these ranges with every prospect of finding them. In spite of repeated 
warnings to the contrary I found on striking into new ground in Newfound- 
land that the best stags were very local in their movements, frequenting 
year after year the same river beds and adjoining forests or small table- 
lands, and these animals seemed never to move even when large masses of 
migrating caribou passed twice annually through their midst. They had, 
in fact, displayed intelligence in choosing a safe place where man, their 
great enemy, never came. The same may be said of the magnificent caribou 
of the high rolling mountains of Cassiar and the Yukon, which live in the 
same ranges year after year, having found certain places on these moun- 
tains where the snow is swept clear even in the severest blizzards of winter, 
and in consequence they are always able to obtain the necessary food supply 
without forced migration. It is also true that in this area caribou perform 
big migrations, but these are deer which have been forced out of some 
habitat in adjoining territory which, under certain climatic conditions, 
have failed to produce the means of existence. These moving deer, not 
understanding local supplies, pass right through the stationary animals, 
and travel on until they find an agreeable haven of rest. The hunter, how- 
ever, must be warned that the great autumn migration on the continent 
of America usually takes place at a somewhat later date than it does in 
Newfoundland, and though means of access to caribou haunts is not difficult, 
the question of returning is another matter, fraught with both difficulty 
and sometimes danger. “Sed revocare gradum, Hie opus Hie labor est,” 
says Ovid, and this applies with incisive truth to the caribou hunter 
who finds himself overwhelmed with deep snow and ice blocking his 
pathway on the return to civilization. It is not a matter of great difficulty 
to reach Lake Mickikamau in Central Labrador and see the vast army of 
trekking caribou in late September, but the man who risks it must spend 
few days there and retreat as quickly as possible unless he wishes to spend 
a whole winter and spring in this cheerless wilderness. The same remarks 
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