the tents, but began to mend soon after he was enabled to confine
himself to the more equable warmth of the house. We took up our
abode at first on the floor, but our working party, who had shown
such skill as house-carpenters, soon proved themselves to be, with
the same tools, (the hatchet and crooked knife,) excellent cabinet
makers, and daily added a table, chair, or bedstead, to the comforts
of our establishment. The crooked knife, generally made of an old
file, bent and tempered by heat, serves an Indian or Canadian
voyager for plane, chisel, and auger. With it the snow-shoe and
canoe-timbers are fashioned, the deals of their sledges reduced to
the requisite thinness and polish, and their wooden bowls and
spoons hollowed out. Indeed, though not quite so requisite for
existence as the hatchet, yet without its aid there would be little
comfort in these wilds.
On the 7th we were gratified by a sight of the sun, after it had
been obscured for twelve days. On this and several following days
the meridian sun melted the light covering of snow or hoar-frost on
the lichens, which clothe the barren grounds, and rendered them so
tender as to attract great herds of rein-deer to our neighbourhood.
On the morning of the 10th I estimated the numbers I saw during
a short walk, at upwards of two thousand. They form into herds of
different sizes, from ten to a hundred, according as their fears or
accident induce them to unite or separate.
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 rein-deer 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 rein-deer 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, $c., 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 larvae 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 mean
time been deposited*.
The rein-deer 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
* “ It is worthy of remark, that in the month of May a very great number of large
larvae 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 lame 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.”—D r .
R i c h a r d s o n ’s Journal.