“The whalers reported that the caribou were abundant among the islands between the mouth of the Mackenzie and Cape Bathurst in July, 1894.”
Game at Fort Confidence.
Ex-Judge Malcolm Macleod, in his evidence before the Senate committee in 1888, referred to a very interesting letter his father had received from Mr. Thomas Simpson, the Arctic explorer, dated from Fort Confidence at the northeast end of Great Bear lake. Fort Confidence was, at the time this evidence was given, the most northerly habitation on this continent that was inhabited by white men. It was within the Arctic circle (67 degrees 53 minutes and 36 seconds). Simpson spoke of the food resources of Fort Confidence as being abundant. The distances between posts were so great that even Dease and Simpson’s, which was a Hudson bay expedition thoroughly equipped, could carry food barely sufficient for use on the way. They were there three winters (those of 1836-37, ’37-38 and ’38-39), nearly three years, and never failed a single day to have an abundant supply of food. Franklin suffered more, because his party was not so well equipped at times, but it is a striking fact that, notwithstanding the severity of the climate, especially in 1838, when the letter was written—an exceptionally severe season—they never ran short of food. They had abundance of fish, deer (caribou), musk ox, and meat of other kinds at all times.
Fort Rae, on the northern branch of Great Slave lake, according to Mr. R. G. McConnell, who visited it in 1888, is surrounded by a deer country, and is looked on rather as a provision post than as a fur post, although it also ranks high in the latter respect. In the winter, thousands of the “Barren Lands” caribou, which have been driven south by the severity of the climate, are slaughtered in its vicinity, and their flesh is converted into dry meat for use in the district.
Mr. Keele says in his report:—“Caribou were observed only at one locality on Gravel river, near the edge of the first timber, about twenty miles from the divide.”
In Countless Numbers.
Mr. A. H. Harrison, writing of his first visit to Great Slave lake in 1902 and 1903 (“In Search of a Polar Continent”), makes the following statement:—“The first winter that I spent on this lake I went out after caribou and when we got among them, after six days’ hard travelling, they were in countless numbers. This is no exaggeration. They were on a lake ten miles in length and five in width, and it was packed so closely with deer that you could not catch a glimpse of the ice-flooring anywhere. We started from Fort Resolution on that occasion with thirty sledges, but only five of these arrived. The mode of hunting employed was curious. Clad in deerskin, the hairy side of which was outermost, one Indian walked right through the deer to the other end of the lake, without any of them taking much notice of him. This surprised me very much, nor was the cause for surprise at an end. Two more Indians, clad in the same way, followed at a distance of about two miles behind the first, one on each side of the lake, and each of these was similarly followed by yet another, whilst I myself remained where I was at the lower end of the lake. When the foremost Indian had reached the other end, he began to shout, and the deer, not knowing which way to go, started running round and round the lake. I killed half a dozen myself, and my companions each brought home a load. Had I cared to do so, I could have killed many more.
“At the north end of Great Slave lake lies Christie bay and thirty miles northeast of this bay is a second bay, of considerable size, enclosing an island, on which, upon another occasion, I had pitched my camp. I was just cooking my midday meal, when a herd of deer passed within a few yards of the camp fire, and I killed five of them in as many minutes. In this locality I stayed for a whole month, with one Indian, and after catering for ourselves and for our dogs, I made a cache of fifty deer, some of which I gave to the mission, and some to Mr. Gaudet, in charge of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s post here. The end of November and the whole of December is the best time of year for going from Fort Resolution after caribou.”
Mr. Harrison also mentions that his party, while camping or travelling about the country around the delta of the Mackenzie in 1905 and 1906, often shot caribou.
Other Big Game—The Mountain Sheep.