Part 1 (2/2)

[sp.?], estimated at the rather preposterous figure of 3,564,000 individuals, crossed the Hayes River 20 miles above York Factory in late May, 1792. The direction of this migration is not indicated.

Richardson writes (”1825”: 330) of the Woodland Caribou: ”In the beginning of September, vast numbers of this kind of deer pa.s.s near York Factory . . . on their journey towards the north-west.”

And again (1829: 250):

”They cross the Nelson and Severn Rivers in immense herds in the month of May, pa.s.s the summer on the low, marshy sh.o.r.es of James' Bay, and return to the northward, and at the same time retire more inland in the month of September. . . . I have been informed by several of the residents at York Factory that the herds are sometimes so large as to require several hours to cross the river in a crowded phalanx.”

The implication is that the herds pa.s.sed _southward_ in May. It should be borne in mind that these were apparently not personal observations of Richardson's; and in his belief that the Barren Ground species did not go south of Churchill, he may have merely a.s.sumed that the animals in the York Factory region were the Woodland species.

”Near York Factory, in 1831, this propensity [Indian destructiveness]

. . . led to the indiscriminate destruction of a countless herd of reindeer [sp.?], while crossing the broad stream of Haye's River, in the height of summer. . . . The deer have never since visited that part of the country in similar numbers.” (Simpson, 1843: 76).

Referring to the York Factory region in 1837, John McLean writes (1932 [1849]: 195). ”Not many years ago this part of the country was periodically visited by immense herds of rein-deer; at present there is scarcely one to be found.”

A later account of Richardson's (1852: 290) is somewhat ambiguous as to the species to which it refers:

”The reindeer that visit Hudson's Bay travel southward toward James's Bay in spring. In the year 1833, vast numbers of them were killed by the Cree Indians at a noted pa.s.s three or four days march above York Factory. They were on their return northward, and were crossing Hayes River in incredible mult.i.tudes.”

Pike writes (1917 [1892]: 50) that ”within the last three years [_i.e._, about 1888] the [Barren Ground?] caribou have appeared in their thousands at York Factory . . . where they have not been seen for over thirty years.”

Preble (1902: 41) quotes Dr. Alexander Milne as thinking, after 14 years' residence at York Factory, that the small bands of ”Woodland Caribou,” found between Churchill and Cape Churchill, form the ”northern fringe of the bands which migrate to the coast in spring, the great majority of which in their journey cross to the south of Nelson River.”

At that time, however, Preble (1902: 42), like Richardson before him, seems to have regarded the Churchill River as the southern limit of the Barren Ground species, and thus he may not have considered the possibility of the animals of Cape Churchill and the Nelson and Hayes rivers belonging to the same species.

It is difficult to draw any sure conclusions from the confusing records just quoted. Possibly chief reliance should be placed upon the testimony of such high authorities as Hearne, Richardson, and Preble when they refer to the animals as Woodland Caribou. Furthermore, none of the early writers identify them unequivocally as the Barren Ground species. It remains fairly evident that long ago some species of Caribou in great numbers did actually cross these rivers in a southerly direction in the spring, pa.s.s the summer on the coastal tundra east of York Factory, and return northward or northwestward in late summer or autumn. Whichever species it was, it represented a segment of the population that must have become reduced to utterly insignificant numbers, if not entirely extirpated, some decades ago. In any event, it does not seem very likely that we shall ever be able to reconstruct the actual movements of the ”incredible mult.i.tudes” in the York Factory region of more than a century ago.

Since the beginning of the present century, until very recent years, there seem to have been few or no Manitoba records of _R. a. arcticus_ from any locality so far to the southeast as York Factory. In 1947, however, Mr. G. W. Malaher, director of the Game and Fisheries Branch in Manitoba, informed me that during the previous couple of winters the animals had ranged southward on a broad front to the lat.i.tude of Oxford House, where they had not been known for 40 or 45 years. It was surmised that the recent burning of large areas north of The Pas, resulting in the destruction of the Caribou's normal winter food of lichens, had deflected the animals toward the southeast and had caused them to extend their migration beyond its normal limit. The Split Lake band of Indians (on the Nelson River) were said to have killed 4,000 Caribou during the winter of 1946-47, and to have used half of them for dog feed.

Arthur H. Lamont, in charge of the meteorological office at Fort Churchill, gave me information concerning Caribou that he had seen during a plane flight from that point to Edmonton on March 18, 1947. At midday he had sighted hundreds, in bands averaging 20 to 30 individuals, on some little lakes, averaging a quarter of a mile in diameter, near the southwestern end of Reindeer Lake. The animals were right in the middle of the frozen lakes (evidently for a noonday rest), and some of them were lying down. They paid no attention to the plane at a height of 6,000 feet, but were frightened when it came down to 200 feet. This was the only area where Caribou were sighted during the entire flight.

Duncan A. McLeod, of Winnipeg, informed me that he had seen thousands and thousands of Caribou on April 16, 1941, while he was flying from Isle a la Crosse to Beaverlodge on Lake Athabaska. They were nearer to Lake Athabaska than to the starting-point. They were congregated on frozen lakes about the middle of the day.

”Their nomadic migrations during the past 10 years have brought caribou herds during winter months to northwestern Ontario (Little Sachigo Lake); central Manitoba (Cormorant, Cross, and Island Lakes); northern Saskatchewan (Churchill River); northeastern Alberta (Clearwater and Athabaska Rivers and Lake Claire)” (Banfield, 1949: 478, fig. 1).

_Spring migration in the Churchill region_

The Hudson Bay Railway is perhaps the only one in North America from which Barren Ground Caribou of the present subspecies have been seen. On May 21, 1947, a pa.s.senger reported three or four of the animals near Mile 326, between Gillam and Amery. Farther north, between Herchmer and Chesnaye, the railway pa.s.ses for perhaps 30-40 miles through the western edge of a tundra area, interspersed with small spruce timber; this is known as the ”Little Barrens.” It was a thrilling experience to see my first Caribou here, during a period of three-quarters of an hour on the afternoon of May 21, from Mile 453 to about Mile 475. There were eight bands, varying in number from 2 to 60 or 70 and averaging about 20 individuals. The first and largest band was loping away from the train, at a distance of perhaps 350 yards. A band of 9 or 10, at about 250 yards, exhibited both a trotting and a loping gait. Others, as far off as half a mile or a mile and therefore less alarmed, seemed to content themselves with trotting. They maintained a noticeably close formation while fleeing from the train. Yearlings, appearing only about half the size of the adults, were readily distinguishable. The animals were in the midst of their spring migration and were evidently moving in a general northerly direction over the snow-covered Barrens. The ice of the small lakes was still solid enough for the Caribou to trot over it.

Two weeks previously a large movement had pa.s.sed through this area, as I learned from several sources. A member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police detachment at Churchill, for example, had traveled through the Caribou for a distance of 15 miles without coming to the end of them; he estimated their numbers at more than 5,000. Joe Chambers, a trapper of Goose Creek, said the animals had been very plentiful in April, moving generally northward. He spoke of finding a good many Caribou that Wolves had killed, contenting themselves with eating only the tongue and the unborn fawn.

According to a railway conductor, only 12 Caribou were seen from the train as it pa.s.sed through the Little Barrens on May 25, and none on May 28.

John Ingebrigtsen, of Churchill, reported pa.s.sing a frozen lake somewhere east of the Duck Lake Post, that was ”absolutely full” of Caribou. It was about a mile and a half long by half a mile wide, and he estimated the number of animals at not less than 20,000. This was in the early part of May, 1942 or 1943, when the spring migration was no doubt under way.

During a plane flight from Eskimo Point to Baker Lake on May 22, 1947, John M. Boura.s.sa and Don Gallagher sighted numbers of Caribou, including one herd of about 500. On May 28 the former saw a Caribou between Churchill and Fort Churchill. From other sources I learned that small numbers occasionally pa.s.s along the outskirts of Churchill during the migrations.

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