BARKEN GROUND CARIBOU 
137 
down to Hamilton Inlet. From Ellesmere Land, 
five skins of a white animal with a gray back 
have been described as Peary’s Caribou , 1 and 
from at least four points in Ellesmere Land, Cari- 
bou have been reported. 
Along the northwest coast of Greenland, es- 
pecially between Melville Bay and Kane Basin, 
Commander Peary found a fair abundance of 
caribou, and at Liverpool Bay, on the east coast, 
a number were killed by a Danish expedition, in 
1900. 
Habits. — One of the habits of the Barren 
Ground Caribou is particularly striking. At 
stated periods, in spring and autumn, they as- 
semble in immense herds, and migrate en masse 
with the compactness and definiteness of purpose 
of an army of cavalry on a march. This is most 
noticeable on the Canadian Barren Grounds, 
which by reason of its summer pasturage and the 
absence of water barriers, encourages the display 
of natural instinct. The observations of several 
travellers north of the Great Slave Lake have 
resulted in the belief .that “in spring the Barren 
Ground Caribou seek the coast of the Arctic 
Ocean, and remain near the salt water until about 
September.” But this idea is much too circum- 
scribed. 
The explorations of Mr. J. B. Tyrrell, of the 
Canadian Geological Survey, have proved con- 
clusively that the universal herd of the Great 
Slave Lake region does exactly as did the uni- 
versal buffalo herd of 1871. It moves north- 
ward in spring for a given distance only, stops 
at will, spends the summer, and in the early 
winter moves southward. On July 30, 1893, Mr. 
Tyrrell saw a vast assemblage of Barren Ground 
Caribou at Carey Lake (Latitude 62° 10' and 
Longitude 102° 45'), nearly 500 miles from the 
Arctic coast. A herd of several thousand ani- 
mals was composed of females with young fawns, 
young females and males of all ages, the lofty 
antlers of the latter being noticeably prominent. 
This herd was then only sixty miles north of the 
southern edge of the Barren Grounds. 
The most impressive published description of 
a caribou migration is from the pen of Mr. War- 
burton Pike. It is a relation of what he saw on 
Lake Camsell, sixty miles north of the eastern 
end of Great Slave Lake, in 1889, and refers to 
the southward movement to the timbered regions, 
1 Rangifer pearyi. 
where the lichens growing upon the trees afford 
subsistence in winter when the ground mosses 
are buried under snow and ice. 
“ From what I could gather from the Yellow- 
Knife Indians,” says Mr. Pike in “The Barren 
Grounds of Northern Canada,” “and from my 
own personal experience, it is late in October 
that the great bands of Caribou, commonly 
known as La foule, mass upon the edge of the 
woods, and start for the food and shelter afforded 
by the stronger growth of pine farther south- 
ward. 
“Scattered bands of Caribou were almost 
always in sight from the top of the ridge behind 
the camps, and increased in numbers till the 
morning of October 20, when little Baptiste, who 
had gone for firewood, woke us before daylight 
with the cry, ‘ La foule! La joule!’ (The throng.) 
Even in the lodge we could hear the curious clat- 
ter made by a band of travelling Caribou. La 
foule had really come, and during its passage of 
six days, I was able to realize what an extra- 
ordinary number of these animals still roam 
the Barren Grounds. 
“From the ridge we had a splendid view of 
the migration. All the south side of Mackay 
Lake was alive with the moving beasts, while 
the ice seemed to be dotted all over with black 
islands, and still away on the north shore, with 
the aid of the glasses, we could see them coming 
like regiments on the march. In every direction 
we could hear the grunting noise that the Cari- 
bou always makes when travelling. 
“The snow was broken into broad roads, and 
I found it useless to try to estimate the number 
that passed within a few miles of our encamp- 
ment. We were just in the western edge of their 
passage, and afterward we heard that a band of 
Dog-Ribs, hunting some forty miles to the west, 
were at this very time in the last straits of starva- 
tion, only saving their lives by a hasty retreat to 
the woods. This is a common danger in the 
autumn, as the Caribou, coming in from the 
Barren Grounds, join together in one vast herd, 
and do not scatter much till they reach the thick 
timber. 
“The Caribou, as is usually the case when 
they are in large numbers, were very tame, and 
on several occasions I found myself right in the 
middle of a band, with a splendid chance to pick 
out any that seemed in good condition. . . . 
