Next afternoon, Billy and I saw a very large buck; his neck was
much swollen, his beard flowing and nearly white. He sighted us
afar, and worked north-west away from us, in no great alarm. I got
out of sight, ran a mile and a half, headed him off, then came on
him from the north, but in spite of all I could do by running and
yelling, he and his band (3 cows with 3 calves) rushed galloping
between me and the lake, 75 yards away. He was too foxy to be driven
back into that suspicious neighbourhood.
Thus we had fine opportunities for studying wild life. In all
these days there was only one unfulfilled desire: I had not seen
the great herd of Caribou returning to the woods that are their
winter range.
This herd is said to rival in numbers the Buffalo herds of story,
to reach farther than the eye can see, and to be days in passing
a given point; but it is utterly erratic. It might arrive in early
September. It was not sure to arrive until late October, when the
winter had begun. This year all the indications were that it would
be late. If we were to wait for it, it would mean going out on the
ice. For this we were wholly unprepared. There were no means of
getting the necessary dogs, sleds, and fur garments; my business
was calling me back to the East. It was useless to discuss the
matter, decision was forced on me. Therefore, without having seen
that great sight, one of the world's tremendous zoological spectacles
the march in one body of millions of Caribou - I reluctantly gave
the order to start. On September 8 we launched the Ann Seton on
her homeward voyage of 1,200 upstream miles.
CHAPTER XXXIX
FAREWELL TO THE CARIBOU
All along the shore of Artillery Lake we saw small groups of Caribou.
They were now in fine coat; the manes on the males were long and
white and we saw two with cleaned antlers; in one these were of a
brilliant red, which I suppose meant that they were cleaned that
day and still bloody.
We arrived at the south end of Artillery Lake that night, and were
now again in the continuous woods what spindly little stuff it
looked when we left it; what superb forest it looked now - and here
we bade good-bye to the prairies and their Caribou.
Now, therefore, I shall briefly summarise the information I gained
about this notable creature. The species ranges over all the
treeless plains and islands of Arctic America. While the great body
is migratory, there are scattered individuals in all parts at all
seasons. The main body winters in the sheltered southern third of
the range, to avoid the storms, and moves north in the late spring,
to avoid the plagues of deer-flies and mosquitoes. The former
are found chiefly in the woods, the latter are bad everywhere; by
travelling against the wind a certain measure of relief is secured,
northerly winds prevail, so the Caribou are kept travelling northward.
When there is no wind, the instinctive habit of migration doubtless
directs the general movement.
How are we to form an idea of their numbers? The only way seems
to be by watching the great migration to its winter range. For the
reasons already given this was impossible in my case, therefore,
I array some of the known facts that will evidence the size of the
herd.
Warburton Pike, who saw them at Mackay Lake, October 20, 1889, says:
"I cannot believe that the herds [of Buffalo] on the prairie ever
surpassed in size La Foule (the throng) of the Caribou. La Foule
had really come, and during its passage of six days I was able to
realize what an extraordinary number of these animals still roam
the Barren Grounds."
From figures and facts given me by H. T. Munn, of Brandon, Manitoba,
I reckon that in three weeks following July 25, 1892, he saw at
Artillery Lake (N. latitude 62 1/2 degrees, W. Long. 112 degrees)
not less than 2,000,000 Caribou travelling southward; he calls this
merely the advance guard of the great herd. Colonel Jones (Buffalo
Jones), who saw the herd in October at Clinton-Colden, has given me
personally a description that furnishes the basis for an interesting
calculation of their numbers.
He stood on a hill in the middle of the passing throng, with a
clear view ten miles each way and it was one army of Caribou. How
much further they spread, he did not know. Sometimes they were
bunched, so that a hundred were on a space one hundred feet square;
but often there would be spaces equally large without any. They
averaged at least one hundred Caribou to the acre; and they passed
him at the rate of about three miles an hour. He did not know how
long they were in passing this point; but at another place they
were four days, and travelled day and night. The whole world seemed
a moving mass of Caribou. He got the impression at last that they
were standing still and he was on a rocky hill that was rapidly
running through their hosts.
Even halving these figures, to keep on the safe side, we find that
the number of Caribou in this army was over 25,000,000. Yet it is
possible that there are several such armies. In which case they
must indeed out-number the Buffalo in their palmiest epoch. So much
for their abundance to-day.
