Inspector Pelletier, Royal Northwest Mounted Police, in the report of his patrol from Great Slave lake to Hudson bay, makes special reference to the numbers of caribou, then migrating southward, seen during the passage of his party from the eastern end of Great Slave lake, to Thelon river. He writes:—“As we were approaching the portage from Burr to Toura lake we sighted a large herd of deer coming out behind the grove of trees. This was the first we had seen. They were mostly does, but a few young bulls were scattered amongst them. We killed a small one which proved a great addition to our larder. They were not much frightened by us although they kept at a distance. They were in sight all the while we were portaging. From Burr lake to Artillery lake we were practically surrounded by deer. We camped for the night of July 21 at the fifteen yards portage north of Toura lake and during the night deer kept passing to and fro close to our tents in large numbers. On July 22 near the foot of Artillery lake we saw thousands and thousands of deer, mostly bulls, coming over the ridge behind our camp, making for the water and crossing where it was no more than half a mile wide. Gradually the ridges on each shore and the traverse itself were alive with them. It was a wonderful sight seen late at night.
“At the south end of Artillery lake countless deer were seen; the bucks and does seemed to belong to separate herds. They were crossing and recrossing at that point where the lake is quite narrow, ranging from a quarter mile to one and a half miles in width. For a distance of about two or three miles the hills were covered with them and the water was bridged in two or three different places at a time. This might appear to be exaggerated; I would never have believed there were so many deer in the north, only now that I have seen them, I must. The natives we met at that place told us what we had seen was not the main herd but part of it, that the main body was a few miles up the lake on the west shore; they had just been there in their canoes the previous day. If what we had seen was not the main herd I wondered how large the main herd could be.
Caribou Along the Thelon.
“Deer were seen in good numbers along Sifton lake, near Timber rapids, and at Timber rapids; they also were sighted in other places. At the high sand ridge, about twelve miles below Sifton lake, a large herd was feeding on an island. At the lower end of Timber rapids the stream scatters and gets shallow, full of boulders, and while winding around little channels a herd of deer was crossing, we could not possibly stop without getting into some mix up. Luckily the deer sighted us and heard us (we were making all the noise we could to frighten them). They rushed through, leaving our little channel open. We could have touched them with the paddle, they were so near. We grazed one rock, and that was due to our attention being diverted by the deer.
“No game was seen on the Hanbury but a deer or two at the upper end. Innumerable paths beaten by them were very distinct all the way, but we saw no fresh tracks denoting recent passage.”
Writing of Thelon river itself, the Inspector states in his report:—“At the lower end deer are very numerous at certain times of the year. At their favourite traverses or crossings the ground is netted with deep, well-defined deer trails. We saw only one deer on the whole of the Thelon. I am told by natives that deer in the fall and spring are seen by the thousands on their migrations north and south.”
West of Chesterfield Inlet.
As to the series of lakes through which the waters of the Thelon and Dubawnt are discharged into Chesterfield inlet, Inspector Pelletier reports:—“From Beverly lake down to Hudson bay deer were met almost daily, but not in large herds. Most were seen along the lower end of Schultz lake, Schultz river rapids and along Baker lake. At Beverly lake we met a camp of Eskimos, a few men and women. They were well provided with everything in the line of arms, ammunition, clothing and necessaries of life. At the foot of Baker lake is another camp of natives, numbering about twenty-five. They were well stocked with everything, killing a good number of deer, and laying in a stock of meat and deerskin for the winter.”
A few notes from journals or reports of other travellers as to the distribution and migration of this remarkable animal are instructive. During Anderson and Stewart’s journey down Backs river in the summer of 1855 caribou were found to be numerous about Clinton-Colden and Aylmer lakes, and the species was observed on Adelaide peninsula in the far north.
In the summer and autumn of 1879 the party of Frederick Schwatka, searching for relics of Sir John Franklin, found large numbers of caribou on King William island and on the lower part of Backs river.