soon after they drop their young. The flesh of the caribou is very tender, and its
flavour when in season is, in ray opinion, superior to that of the finest English
venison ; but when the animal is lean it is very insipid, the difference being greater
between well-fed and lean caribou than any one can conceive who has not had an
opportunity of judging. The lean meat fills the stomach but never satisfies the
appetite, and scarcely serves to recruit the strength when exhausted by labour.
The flesh of the moose-deer and buffalo, on the other hand, is tough when lean,
but is never so utterly tasteless and devoid of nourishment as that of a caribou in
poor condition. The Chepewyans, the Copper Indians, the Dog-ribs and Hare
Indians of Great Bear Lake, would be totally unable to inhabit their barren lands
were it not for the immense herds of this deer that exist there. Of the caribou
horns they form their fish-spears and hooks; and previous to the introduction of
European iron, ice-chisels, and various other utensils were likewise made of them.
The hide dressed with the fur is, as has been already mentioned, excellent for
winter clothing, and supplies the place of both blanket and feather-bed to the
inhabitants of the Arctic wilds. When subjected to the process described in the
article on the moose-deer, it forms a soft and pliable leather, adapted for mocassins
and summer clothing, or when sixty or seventy skins are sewed together, they
make a tent sufficient for the residence of a large family. • The shin-bone of the
deer, split so as to present a sharp edge, is the knife that is used to remove the
hair in the process of making the leather. The undressed hide, after the hair is
taken off, is cut into thongs of various thickness, which are twisted into deer-
snares, bow-strings, net-lines, and in fact supply all the purposes of rope. The
finer thongs are used in the manufacture of fishing nets or in working snow-
shoes ; while the tendons of the dorsal muscles are split into fine and excellent
sewing thread.
Besides these and many other uses to which the Indians appropriate different
parts of the caribou in their domestic economy, the animal is no less useful in the
way of food. The hunter breaks the leg bones of a recently-slaughtered deer, and
while the marrow is still warm devours it with much relish. The. kidneys and
part of the intestines, particularly the thin folds of the third stomach or many-plies,
are likewise occasionally eaten when ,raw, and the summits of the antlers, as long
as they are soft, are also delicacies in a raw state. The - colon or large gut is
inverted, so as to preserve its fatty appendages, and is, when either roasted or
boiled, one of the richest and most savoury morsels the country affords, either to
the native or white resident. The remainder of the intestines, after being cleaned,
are hung in the smoke for a few days and then broiled. The stomach and its
contents, termed by the Esquimaux nerrooks, and by the Greenlanders nerrokak or
nèrriookàk, are also eaten, and it would appear that the lichens and other
vegetable matters on which the caribou feeds are more easily digested by the
human stomach when they have are mixed with the salivary and gastric juices
of a ruminating animal. Many of the Indians and Canadian voyagers prefer
this savoury mixture after it has undergone a degree of fermentation, or lain
to season, as they term it, for a few days. The blood, if mixed in proper
proportion with a strong decoction of fat meat, forms, after some nicety in
the cooking, a rich soup, which is very palatable and highly-nutritious, but
very difficult of digestion. When all the soft parts of the animal are consumed,
the bones are pounded small, and a large quantity of marrow is extracted
from them by boiling. This is used in making the better kinds of the mixture of
dried meat and fat-, which is named pemmican, and it is also preserved by the
young men and females for anointing the hair and greasing the face on dress
occasions. The tongue roasted, when fresh or when half dried, is a delicious
morsel. When it is necessary to preserve the caribou meat for use at a future
period, it is cut into thin slices and dried over the smoke of a slow fire, and then
pounded betwixt two stones. This pounded meat is very dry and husky if
eaten alone, but when a quantity of - the1-back fat or dépouillé of the deer is added
to it, is one of the greatest treats that can be offered to a resident in the fur
countries. Pemmican is formed by pouring one-third part of melted fat over the
pounded meat and incorporating them well together. If kept dry it may be preserved
sound for three or four years, and from the quantity of nourishment it
contains in small bulk, it is perhaps the best kind of food for those who travel
through desert lands. Thueehawgan is a mixture of pounded deer’s meat and
dried fish or fish-roe, which is eaten raw, or when made into soup, by throwing a
handful of it into boiling water.
The caribou travel in herds, varying in number from eight or ten to two or three
hundred, and their daily excursions are generally towards the quarter from whence
the wind blows. The Indians kill them with the bow and arrow or gun, take them
in snares, or spear them in crossing rivers or lakes. The Esquimaux also take
them in traps ingeniously formed of ice or snow. Of all the deer of North
America, they are the most easy of approach, and are slaughtered in the greatest
numbers. A single family of Indians will sometimes destroy two or three hundred
in a few weeks, and in many cases they are killed for the sake of their tongues alone.
The following extract from Captain Lyon’s interesting Journal, details some
of the Esquimaux methods of killing them. “ The rein-deer,” says he*,
* Private Journal, p. 336.