The Journey to the Polar Sea

by John Franklin

The females being at this time more lean and active usually lead the van. The haunches of the males are now covered to the depth of two inches or more with fat which is beginning to get red and high flavoured and is considered a sure indication of the commencement of the rutting season. Their horns, which in the middle of August were yet tender, have now attained their proper size and are beginning to lose their hairy covering which hangs from them in ragged filaments. The horns of the reindeer vary not only with its sex and age but are otherwise so uncertain in their growth that they are never alike in any two individuals. The old males shed theirs about the end of December; the females retain them until the disappearance of the snow enables them to frequent the barren grounds which may be stated to be about the middle or end of May, soon after which period they proceed towards the sea-coast and drop their young. The young males lose their horns about the same time with the females or a little earlier, some of them as early as April. The hair of the reindeer falls in July and is succeeded by a short thick coat of mingled clove, deep reddish and yellowish browns; the belly and under parts of the neck, etc., remaining white. As the winter approaches the hair becomes longer and lighter in its colours and it begins to loosen in May, being then much worn on the sides from the animal rubbing itself against trees and stones. It becomes grayish and almost white before it is completely shed. The Indians form their robes of the skins procured in autumn when the hair is short. Towards the spring the larvæ of the oestrus, attaining a large size, produce so many perforations in the skins that they are good for nothing. The cicatrices only of these holes are to be seen in August but a fresh set of ova have in the meantime been deposited.[^[21]]

[21] “It is worthy of remark that in the month of May a very great number of large larvæ 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 larvæ 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.

The herds of reindeer are attended in their migrations by bands of wolves which destroy a great many of them. The Copper Indians kill the reindeer in the summer with the gun or, taking advantage of a favourable disposition of the ground, they enclose a herd upon a neck of land and drive them into a lake where they fall an easy prey but, in the rutting season and in the spring, when they are numerous on the skirts of the woods, they catch them in snares. The snares are simple nooses, formed in a rope made of twisted sinew, which are placed in the aperture of a slight hedge constructed of the branches of trees. This hedge is so disposed as to form several winding compartments and, although it is by no means strong, yet the deer seldom attempt to break through it. The herd is led into the labyrinth by two converging rows of poles and one is generally caught at each of the openings by the noose placed there. The hunter too, lying in ambush, stabs some of them with his bayonet as they pass by and the whole herd frequently becomes his prey. Where wood is scarce a piece of turf turned up answers the purpose of a pole to conduct them towards the snares.

The reindeer has a quick eye but the hunter, by keeping to leeward and using a little caution, may approach very near, their apprehensions being much more easily roused by the smell than the sight of any unusual object. Indeed their curiosity often causes them to come close up and wheel around the hunter; thus affording him a good opportunity of singling out the fattest of the herd, and upon these occasions they often become so confused by the shouts and gestures of their enemy that they run backwards and forwards with great rapidity but without the power of making their escape.

The Copper Indians find by experience that a white dress attracts them most readily and they often succeed in bringing them within shot by kneeling and vibrating the gun from side to side in imitation of the motion of a deer’s horns when he is in the act of rubbing his head against a stone.

The Dog-Rib Indians have a mode of killing these animals which though simple is very successful. It was thus described by Mr. Wentzel who resided long amongst that people. The hunters go in pairs, the foremost man carrying in one hand the horns and part of the skin of the head of a deer and in the other a small bundle of twigs against which he from time to time rubs the horns, imitating the gestures peculiar to the animal. His comrade follows, treading exactly in his footsteps and holding the guns of both in a horizontal position so that the muzzles project under the arms of him who carries the head. Both hunters have a fillet of white skin round their foreheads and the foremost has a strip of the same kind round his wrists. They approach the herd by degrees, raising their legs very slowly but setting them down somewhat suddenly after the manner of a deer, and always taking care to lift their right or left feet simultaneously. If any of the herd leave off feeding to gaze upon this extraordinary phenomenon it instantly stops and the head begins to play its part by licking its shoulders and performing other necessary movements. In this way the hunters attain the very centre of the herd without exciting suspicion and have leisure to single out the fattest. The hindmost man then pushes forward his comrade’s gun, the head is dropped, and they both fire nearly at the same instant. The herd scampers off, the hunters trot after them; in a short time the poor animals halt to ascertain the cause of their terror, their foes stop at the same instant and, having loaded as they ran, greet the gazers with a second fatal discharge. The consternation of the deer increases, they run to and fro in the utmost confusion, and sometimes a great part of the herd is destroyed within the space of a few hundred yards.

A party who had been sent to Akaitcho returned bringing three hundred and seventy pounds of dried meat and two hundred and twenty pounds of suet, together with the unpleasant information that a still larger quantity of the latter article had been found and carried off, as he supposed, by some Dog-Ribs who had passed that way.

The weather becoming daily colder all the lakes in the neighbourhood of the house were completely, and the river partially, frozen over by the middle of the month. The reindeer now began to quit us for more southerly and better-sheltered pastures. Indeed their longer residence in our neighbourhood would have been of little service to us, for our ammunition was almost completely expended though we had dealt it of late with a very sparing hand to the Indians. We had however already secured in the storehouse the carcasses of one hundred deer together with one thousand pounds of suet and some dried meat, and had moreover eighty deer stowed up at various distances from the house. The necessity of employing the men to build a house for themselves before the weather became too severe obliged us to put the latter en cache, as the voyagers term it, instead of adopting the more safe plan of bringing them to the house. Putting a deer en cache means merely protecting it against the wolves and still more destructive wolverines by heavy loads of wood or stones; the latter animal however sometimes digs underneath the pile and renders the precautions abortive.