"It Is Worthy Of Remark That In The Month Of May A Very Great
Number Of Large Larvae Exist Under The Mucous Membrane At The Root Of The
Tongue And Posterior Part Of The Nares And Pharynx.
The Indians consider
them to belong to the same species with the oestrus that deposits its ova
under the skin:
To us the larvae of the former appeared more flattened
than those of the latter. Specimens of both kinds preserved in spirits
were destroyed by the frequent falls they received on the portages." Dr.
Richardson's Journal.)
The reindeer retire from the sea-coast in July and August, rut in October
on the verge of the barren grounds and shelter themselves in the woods
during the winter. They are often induced by a few fine days in winter to
pay a transitory visit to their favourite pastures in the barren country,
but their principal movement to the northward commences generally in the
end of April when the snow first begins to melt on the sides of the hills
and early in May, when large patches of the ground are visible, they are
on the banks of the Copper-Mine River. The females take the lead in this
spring migration and bring forth their young on the sea-coast about the
end of May or beginning of June. There are certain spots or passes
well-known to the Indians, through which the deer invariably pass in
their migrations to and from the coast and it has been observed that they
always travel against the wind. The principal food of the reindeer in the
barren grounds consists of the Cetraria nivalis and cucullata, Cenomyce
rangiferina, Cornicularia ochrileuca, and other lichens, and they also
eat the hay or dry grass which is found in the swamps in autumn. In the
woods they feed on the different lichens which hang from the trees. They
are accustomed to gnaw their fallen antlers and are said also to devour
mice.
The weight of a full-grown barren-ground deer, exclusive of the offal,
varies from ninety to one hundred and thirty pounds. There is however a
much larger kind found in the woody parts of the country whose carcass
weighs from two hundred to two hundred and forty pounds. This kind never
leaves the woods but its skin is as much perforated by the gadfly as that
of the others, a presumptive proof that the smaller species are not
driven to the sea-coast solely by the attacks of that insect. There are a
few reindeer occasionally killed in the spring whose skins are entire and
these are always fat whereas the others are lean at that season. This
insect likewise infests the red-deer (wawaskeesh) but its ova are not
found in the skin of the moose or buffalo, nor, as we have been informed,
of the sheep and goat that inhabit the Rocky Mountains, although the
reindeer found in those parts (which are of an unusually large kind) are
as much tormented by them as the barren-ground variety.
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