Dec. 7, 1912 
FOREST AND STREAM 
717 
The Caribou Barrens of Newfoundland -II. 
Pictures and Text by the “Judge.” 
B OB and Ralph got back from the South at 
4 P. m.— a quick trip—and reported see¬ 
ing many ducks and geese, a doe and a small 
stag. Lionel says: “All the big stag hides 
now way back in the edges of the mesh, sunning 
he’s horns, gettin’ ’em ready for we.” 
There were a few mosquitos around, but 
they had only strength enough to fly and sing; 
and the black flies did not bite with that vicious 
bloodthirstiness which characterizes them in 
June, confining their attentions to crawling up 
our sleeves and into our ears. There were 
lots of fox tracks in the sand along the river, 
and bear signs, too; but Bob said it was no 
use hunting them before the middle of October, 
the fur being poor now. There are no skunks 
or porcupines in Newfoundland, though there 
are plenty in Labrador. 
Speaking of shelldrakes and coots and 
various fish ducks, Lionel expressed a lively 
liking for them all; but said: “I can’t come 
a hen, I’m not like she whatever,” reminding 
me of old Peter Therkelsen, of fond memory, 
who said, as to skunks: “Wall, you talc ’urn 
young skunk, parboil Tim in salt water and fry 
’um in butter—bah gosh, ah’m jes soon have 
chicken.” 
In the woods near camp we found a 21- 
point horn, very much chewed up by mice, 
which reminded Bob that while guiding a gov¬ 
ernment surveying party in the upper Terra 
Nova country last November he found, in the 
water’s edge of St. John’s Lake, the wasted re¬ 
mains of a couple of stags with the horns tight¬ 
ly interlocked. The heads he hung in a tree, 
and while passing there trapping, in February, 
took them with him; the skulls meanwhile hav¬ 
ing been nicely cleaned off by the Canada jays, 
and he had them then at home. He said the 
angle of contact would be perfect for cross¬ 
corner mounting, and that he could supply a 
pair of scalps during the winter if desired. 
Upon returning. I mentioned the matter to 
Wm. T. Hornaday, Curator of the New York 
Zoological Society, and he expressed a desire 
to have these horns for the heads and horns 
exhibit in the Administration Building at the 
Bronx Zoo. I accordingly got Bob to send 
them along, and they are now mounted in the 
Administration Building. A photograph of 
these unique trophies appears herewith. 
Barring occasional showers, the days were 
fair, the sky blue and the weather cool. Hav¬ 
ing finished spotting out the trail into the 
“Big Mesh” over the ridge southeast, we found 
a great, rolling country, covered with tiny 
scattering bushes, six to eighteen inches in 
height, carpeted with the most beautiful con¬ 
tinuous bed of moss, deep brown, bright chest¬ 
nut and gray; all dry and velvety under foot, 
and intersected in every direction with caribou 
leads cut down into the roots of the mosses 
eight or ten inches below the surface of the 
bog. The curly toe prints of the deer were 
everywhere, in the leads and upon the surface 
of the moss. 
The bog was about two hundred feet high 
above the river and there was a splendid view. 
LOCKED HORNS OF STAGS FOUND DEAD AT ST. JOHN'S LAKE, BY ROBERT BROOKING, OF ALEXANDER BAY, 
NEWFOUNDLAND. 
Now in exhibit of heads and horns at I’ronx Zoological Park, New York City. Described in this issue. 
Mount Peyton stood up nobly upon the north¬ 
eastern horizon. There are a great variety of 
marsh shrubs; such as the Indian tea, six 
inches high, with a slender green leaf rich 
brown underneath; stunted red spruces only 
one to four feet in height; the “goul-withey,” 
a large leaf smooth and green on both sides 
and twelve inches high; the black plum bush, 
about two inches high, which, in the season, 
bears a small black plum about the size of a 
cranberry: the bake apple bush, four to six 
inches in height, and with a broad green leaf, 
and the marsh berry bush, bearing a fruit about 
like cranberries, but slightly smaller, and much 
used for making jam. Blueberries were plenti¬ 
ful in the old burnt lands and were much 
favored by the “grouse” (ptarmigan), and black 
bears. In the woods a tiny vine crawling up 
over the stumps bore a “capillear berry,” as 
Bob called it, or as Lionel put it, “Maidenhair 
teaberry”; a pure white berry, the size of a 
red currant, but elongated and of a very sweet 
flavor. Red partridge berries (mountain cran¬ 
berries) are plentiful on the old burned “dry 
barrens,” and are shipped by thousands of 
barrels to England, where they are used for 
making jam and red dye stuff. 
The characteristic trees of the country are 
white birch, cherry, poplar and maple along 
the river banks and on the ridges; alder in 
the little wood swamps; thick groves of spruce, 
tamarack, fir, pine and a very little cedar. 
Chickadees and Canada jays are numerous, 
and there are small hawks, some few larger 
ones, and at night is heard the cry of owls, 
large and small. 
The weather now turned very cold and 
clear, and Bob and I crossed the river to hunt 
