Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 August 1895 — VAST HERDS OF CARIBOU. [ARTICLE]

VAST HERDS OF CARIBOU.

In tho For North Thoy Aro as Thick os Evor Buffaloes Wore. The Barren-Ground Caribou now Inhabits the Great Slave Lake country, and just eastward thereof, not only in thousands, but tens of thousands, and it is almost safe to say hundreds of thousands. In 1891, when Mr. Warburton Tike found himself in the very midst of the vast throng of Caribou that were migrating southward, he was moved to doubt whether the buffalo had ever existed in greater numbers. Think of it! Vast herds of big game animals, fit for food, alive and unslaughtered in North America to-day! Why this oversight on the part of the game butchers? Where are the hide hunters, the tongue hunters, and the grand army of greedy game killers generally! The reason for the unslaughtered condition of the Caribou herds of the far North is that Jack Frost owns the Barren Grounds, and by game butchers Jack is considered “bad medicine.” As usual, the inhabitants of Caribouland slaughter tiie herds with sickening wastefulness whenever they get an opportunity; but thus far the Caribou is holding its own fairly well, save in Alaska. Mr. Warburton Pike says that in summer they keep to the true Barren Grounds, but in the autumn, when their feeding grounds are covered with snow, they seek the hanging moss in the woods. “From what I could gather from the Yellow-knife Indians, 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 further southward.” Of this groat annual migration here is what plucky Mr. Pike actually saw on Luke Camsell, about dixty miles north of the eastern end of Great Slave Lake. It reads like a fairy tale, but nevertheless the account Is undoubtedly true. "Scattered bands of Caribou were almost always In sight from the top of'the ridge behind the camp, and Increased in numbers until the morning of Octobor 20, 1889, when little Baptiste, who had gone for firewood, woke us up before daylight with the cry, ‘La foule 1 La foule 1’ (The throng 1 The throngl) Even in the lodge we could hear the curious clatter mado by a band of traveling Caribou. La foule had really come, and during the passage of six days I was able to realize wliut an extraordinary number of these animals still roam the Barren Grounds.” He thus describes tho migration : "From the ridge we had a splendid view of tho migration. All the south side of Mackay Luke was alive with the moving beasts, while the Ice seemed to bo dotted all over with black islands, and still away on the north shore, witli 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 Caribou always make whon traveling. The enow was broken Into broad roads, and I found It useless to try to estimate the number that passed within a few miles of our encampment. We were just on the western edge of their passage, and afterward we hoard that u band of Dog-Ribs, hunting some forty miles to the west, were at this very time In the last straits of starvation, only saving their lives by a hasty rotrout to the woods. This Is a common danger in the autumn, as the Caribou, coming In from the Barren Ground, join togethor in one vast herd, and do not scatter much till they reach the thick timber. The Caribou, as Is usually the caso when they are in large numbers, were very tamo, und on several occasions I found myself right in the iniddlo of a band, with a splendid chance to pick out any that seemed in good condition. Notwithstanding all the tall stories that are told of their numbers (the buffaloes) I cannot believe the herds qp the prairie evor surpassed i n size La foule of the Caribou.”