The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-12-28
ALAskA.s WILD cARIBoo.
Enormous Bands of These Animals
Roam the Yukon river Country.
From the San Francisco CAL.

From the San Francisco Call
when I left circle City early in Au-
gust. and from which 1 have just now ar
rived" said William Dalton, the Califor-
MIA gold digger, yesterday, who has been
for three years mining on the Yukon,
large bands of carboo were coming over
the mountains from the north and run
ming south. In some Of these bands there
were as many as from 5000 to 5000 cariboo
at a time. They were moving in immense
masses. / had frequently seen them be-
fore, for every fall and spring the caflDoo
start on their regular pilgrlmageS. IN the
spring they go north, and in the fall they
move south again. 1t IS beautiful sight
TO see them. They are huge animals,
and when you get a few thousand OF
them together the great horns make
them in the distance look like NOV
ing forest. / have seen them make
path two miles wide in the snow. l was
mining on Hogham creek, and when the
cariboo began TO cross the divide north OF
the camp there were so many that IL
took between three and four days for
them to get over.
The cariboo usually string along very
lelsurely, but as soon as the boys IN camp
see them they begin 10 shoot, and then
the cariboo start TO running. They don't
gallop-they trot, and they trot good
deal faster than a horse. Beyond the di-
vide and between the Yukon and the Tan
ana river Is the Tanana divide, and there
at these two seasons may also be seen large
bands of caribou The cariboo come from
every direction, so that wherever you go
you see moving masses of them. 1t was
thus that they were pouring over the hills
when left. The Tanana is a big river, hav-
igaDle for steamboats, for 500 miles, and
everybody knows more or less of the great
size of the Yukon. There are many other
rivers besides the Tanana which empty
into the Yukon. When the cariboo come
to any of these they simply plunge in and
swim Nothing impedes them. However,
when they have their choice they keep up
on the hills.
1T is said that many of these cariboo
spend good part of the year among some
almost bare mountains north of the Ia
mana. The crests of the mountains are
granite, and 1t Is as smooth as the tiles of
a hoor. The cariboo there and elsewhere
i've on the moss that grows in parts Of
these mountains. They have spoonlike
horn-that is, wide and fat-and with this
they scrape away the snow and get at the
moss. The horn acts as a sort of shove,
ana answers the purpose admirably The
carlboo have very big feet, which spread
out and keep them on top of the soft snow
Ihere is big deer claw on each foot and
TINS helps them, so that the foot as a
whole spreads out like fan. In the fan
the cariooo Will dress from SEQ to 400
pounds each, when full grown but i'm the
spring they are so poor they don't welsh
more than half that much. In the fan and
winter the bulls and cows go in different
communities, but always keep near TO-
Selier. never expect to see more in
spflhS slght than these cariboo as they
move back and forth in their mierationS
II Is sight worth a lot of money, and
Wn1,eh one has seen it he will never forget