The Unexploited West / A Compilation of all of the authentic information available at the present time as to the Natural Resources of the Unexploited Regions of Northern Canada

by Ernest J. Chambers

CHAPTER XXII.

THE BARREN LANDS, OR “ARCTIC PRAIRIE.”

Game, Fur-bearing Animals and Fish.

Where Millions of Caribou Roam at Large.—Actual Value of These Immense Herds Very Great.—Can they Become Domesticated or Replaced by the Lapland Reindeer?—The Home of the Musk-Ox and Many Fur-Bearing Animals.—The Polar Bear.—Where the Wild Geese Nest.—Lakes, Rivers and Sea Coasts Teeming With Fish.—The Arctic Salmon, Trout, White Fish and Grayling.

The fish and game resources of the Barren Lands have hitherto been the sole support of the small human population, and unquestionably they could support an infinitely larger number of people than have hitherto resided in the far northern wilderness. As every explorer of the region from Hearne until the present date has had to depend primarily practically wholly upon fish and game for sustenance while in the interior, we know much more about the resources of the country in those respects than any of the others. The occurrence of fish and game has been a matter of life or death to the explorers, and naturally they have all dwelt upon the matter in the narratives of their trips. That so many adventurous and lengthy trips through the country have succeeded testifies to the abundance of fish and game even in the far north of this vast region.

The chief source of the food supply of the natives and of explorers in the Barren Lands is the Barren Lands caribou, Rangifer arcticus (Richardson). Mr. E. A. Preble of the United States Biological Survey, in his report so often quoted in the preceding pages, says:—“This famous animal, usually in the north called ‘deer,’ and often mentioned in the narratives of Arctic travel, occurs more or less abundantly on the barren grounds of the region treated of, and on the large islands to the northward. It is the caribou, more than any other animal, which renders human residence in this desolate region possible.

“Within this great area it is probable that there are two or more races, perhaps distinct species, since the animals are separated by the physiographic conditions of the country into different herds, or aggregations of herds, which never associate with each other at any time of the year, and which have somewhat different habits. A series of skins and skulls will be necessary to a decision as to the number of recognizable forms. For the present, however, all the caribou of this region, excepting the woodland species, may without violence be

Considered as One Species,

for which the name arcticus, applied by Richardson to the animal inhabiting the main area of the Barren Grounds between Great Bear lake and Hudson bay, may be used. It is reasonably certain that within this latter area but one species is represented.”

One of the recent explorers, Mr. J. B. Tyrrell, and his brother, Mr. J. W. Tyrrell, give us perhaps the most complete first-hand information as to the caribou. In notes of the fauna of the country lying between the eastern part of Athabaska lake and Churchill river, explored in the summer of 1892, J. B. Tyrrell says:—“The Barren Grounds caribou. . . . . . comes south in winter to the south end of Reindeer lake and the upper portion of Mudjatik and Foster rivers. It travels north in spring to the Barren Grounds, but a very few animals are occasionally left behind, one having been shot in July near the north end of Cree lake.”