The Crooked Knife Generally Made Of An Old File,
Bent And Tempered By Heat, Serves An Indian Or Canadian Voyager For
Plane, Chisel, And Auger.
With it the snowshoe and canoe-timbers are
fashioned, the deals of their sledges reduced to the requisite thinness
and polish, and their wooden bowls and spoons hollowed out.
Indeed though
not quite so requisite for existence as the hatchet yet without its aid
there would be little comfort in these wilds.
On the 7th we were gratified by a sight of the sun after it had been
obscured for twelve days. On this and several following days the meridian
sun melted the light covering of snow or hoarfrost on the lichens which
clothe the barren grounds, and rendered them so tender as to attract
great herds of reindeer to our neighbourhood. On the morning of the 10th
I estimated the numbers I saw during a short walk at upwards of two
thousand. They form into herds of different sizes from ten to a hundred
according as their fears or accident induce them to unite or separate.
The females being at this time more lean and active usually lead the van.
The haunches of the males are now covered to the depth of two inches or
more with fat which is beginning to get red and high flavoured and is
considered a sure indication of the commencement of the rutting season.
Their horns, which in the middle of August were yet tender, have now
attained their proper size and are beginning to lose their hairy covering
which hangs from them in ragged filaments. The horns of the reindeer vary
not only with its sex and age but are otherwise so uncertain in their
growth that they are never alike in any two individuals. The old males
shed theirs about the end of December; the females retain them until the
disappearance of the snow enables them to frequent the barren grounds
which may be stated to be about the middle or end of May, soon after
which period they proceed towards the sea-coast and drop their young. The
young males lose their horns about the same time with the females or a
little earlier, some of them as early as April. The hair of the reindeer
falls in July and is succeeded by a short thick coat of mingled clove,
deep reddish and yellowish browns; the belly and under parts of the neck,
etc., remaining white. As the winter approaches the hair becomes longer
and lighter in its colours and it begins to loosen in May, being then
much worn on the sides from the animal rubbing itself against trees and
stones. It becomes grayish and almost white before it is completely shed.
The Indians form their robes of the skins procured in autumn when the
hair is short. Towards the spring the larvae of the oestrus, attaining a
large size, produce so many perforations in the skins that they are good
for nothing. The cicatrices only of these holes are to be seen in August
but a fresh set of ova have in the meantime been deposited.*
(*Footnote.
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