118 
CARIBOU OR AMERICAN REINDEER. 
as the 23d of September, and the females, with their fawns, made their first 
appearance on the 22d of April. The males in general do not go so far 
north as the females. On the coast of Hudson’s Bay the Barren-ground 
Caribou migrate farther south than those on the Coppermine or Mackenzie 
rivers ; but none of them go to the southward of Churchill.” 
The Caribou becomes very fat at times, and is then an excellent article ' 
of food. As some particulars connected with its edible qualities are rather 
singular, we subjoin them from the same author : “ When in condition 
there is a layer of fat deposited on the back and rump of the males to the 
depth of two or three inches or more, immediately under the skin, which is 
termed depouille by the Canadian voyagers, and as an article of Indian 
trade, it is often of more value than all the remainder of the carcass. The 
depouille is thickest at the commencement of the rutting season ; it then 
becomes of a red colour, and acquires a high flavour, and soon afterwards 
disappears. The females at that period are lean, but in the course of the 
winter they acquite a small depouille, which is exhausted soon after they 
drop their young. The flesh of the Caribou is very tender, and its flavour 
when in season is, in my opinion, superior to that of the finest English 
venison, but when the animal is lean it is very insipid, the difference being 
greater between well fed and lean Caribou than any one can conceive who 
has not had an opportunity of judging. The lean meat fills the stomach 
but never satisfies the appetite, and scarcely serves to recruit the strength 
when exhausted by labour.” “ The Chepewyans, the Copper Indians, the 
Dog-Bibs and Hare Indians of Great Bear Lake, would be totally unable 
to inhabit their barren lands were it not for the immense herds of this 
Deer that exist there. Of the Caribou horns they form their fish-spears 
and hooks ; and previous to the introduction of European iron, ice-chisels 
and various other utensils were likewise made of them.” “ The hunter 
breaks the leg-bones of a recently slaughtered Deer, and while the marrow 
is still warm devours it with much relish. The kidneys and part of the 
intestines, particularly the thin folds of the third stomach or manyplies,^ 
are likewise occasionally eaten when raw, and the summits of the antlers, 
as long as they are soft, are also delicacies in a raw state. The colon or 
large gut is inverted, so as to preserve its fatty appendages, and is, when 
either roasted or boiled, one of the richest and most savoury morsels the 
country affords, either to the native or white resident. The remainder of 
the intestines, after being cleaned, are hung in the smoke for a few days 
and then broiled. The stomach and its contents, termed by the Esquimaux 
nerrooks, and by the Greenlanders nerro/ca/c or nerrioolcak, are also eaten, 
and it would appear that the lichens and other vegetable matters on which 
the Caribou feeds are more easily digested by the human stomach when 
