The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-02-07
oIIFER WAYS OF CARIBOU.
,,,cR ATOMS A PUZZLE TO
M GUIDES AND sPORTsMEN.


,..--Guide With a Sheet-IrOn
s.,.s chased by Nengefnl Bull
,,,,.n, between a Caribou Patri-
r.b and a Big Bear.
,,-,,,sp,ick Letter in New York Sun.
-. d no game animal on this conh-
,oncerning whose habits 50 little IS
u, as the woodland caribou. The more
barren ground caribou of New
-.i,rd Labrador and the Northwest
-,...,., have their regular migrations IN
-....,,,, and fail and their modes of life
we'll understood, but the woodland
..v,oY remains a veritable sphinx. His
-, almost patriarchaI appearance, his
., fnrtive. whimsical ways, his
-,sriois movements from place to place,
- r.r,arkable power of travelling in the
s.an SHOWS of winter his capacity TO
..,ra and fatten upon such airy fare as
49,. reindeer moss, are among the features
.ho+ give rise to endless debate among
-,idss and sportsmen. In truth, the carl
-. 10 a tramp or vagabond without any
,.,,isr habits at all He seems TO be inn
h,,sd with the restless spirit of the age,
h,s ma fixed abiding place, and is always
in hurry to reach some other place On
or5sr 10 he in time TO hurry back again.
ea.n ON the. barren In December he is like
gray ghost from another world, his
sbsdow lingering for moment on the
shifting curtain of the SHOWS, then vanish
ing to the limbo of the weird.
In 1S4o Old residents say, caribou were
rlantifll in Maine. They were even found
nithin fourteen miles of Bangor and on
all the large boys to the east. On the
Cbemo bog herds of fifty or seventy-five
U4r4 sometimes seen. In 1916 there We're
no caribou to be found in Maine anywhere,
except an occasional solitary in the wilds
of Aroos,ook 1t would naturally be sup
rosed that they had shifted to the wide
\ stralchine burrens of New Brunswick
where the reindeer moss Caledonia rangi-
n fernia) was abundant, but such was not
the case the animals being very rare in
this province at that time and for many
years afterWard In 1859 they began to
wander into Maine again, and it was about
this time that they reappeared on the
headwarers of the Tobique, Restigouche,
Mramchi and Nepisguit in New Bruins
wick Al the present time caribou are al
reports of the game officials. while they
are believed to be more numerous in New
Brunswick than ever before
In 1885 an old Crown land surveyor, Ed
ward Jack, was employed for some
months running lines among the wooded
hills Of the peninsula of Gaspe. He found
the country alive with caribou, herds of
fifty and even a hundred individuals be-
ing seen daily. For some years after this
the interior of Gaspe, especially the Sink
shawk mountains. was caribou paradise,
and as the country was unknown to sports
men and the animals little hunted by the
Fl French people living on the coast, it SEEM
a ed likely to remain So Last fall j. B.
III Branerd Of East Orange, Me-, and Will
lam Chestnut of this city hunted the Sink
IA shaWk region faithfully. They saw only
-FOUR interior specimens of caribou on the
entire "Trip. The great herds seen by Mr.
M Jack had disappeared.
M Thirty years ago the spacious plains of
IA Gaspereaux and Pleasant Brook, in this
81 province, were occupied by many herds
OF caribou 1t was the happy hunting
ground OF the Milicetes. In those days
the game laws were more honored in the
preach than the observance" and 1t was
MA not unusual for the officers of the Eng
lsh regiments stationed at Fredericton to
maui in twenty or thirty caribou as a re-
SUIT OF their annual hunt in Christmas
week In the year 1885 the caribou van
Sueu from the GaspereauX, and were not
seen there again for seven years. After
NV these barrens could always be relied
upon Tor a limited supply. In November
asI an American hunting party camping
at Fiedsant Brook saw $50 caribou in the
Sp'1e VI HVe days. Another famous,
though seldom hunted, carbon resort in
mead Of Renous. In 1886 the herds disap
peared and only solitary specimens were
zen LOT some years. Last year the ami
naIs came BACK with rush. Parties who
"un'Vu III mat country with the veteran
e"N1s' Hehry Bralthwaite and Tom Prin
VI sie' Sd" scores of caribou almost dailv
On the plains These facts show thai the
eaIlpou Is bird of passage, without any
suiar point OF fight. They rather point
" lne conclusion that the peninsula of
- the northern home of the wood
amu CARIBOU, and that he strays to the
south when the spirit moves him
question much discussed is as IN what
r, ,ColleS OF the caribou in the summer
'u'ns' unlike the moose and the deer
1eHls TO nave little use for water and
- ~ rarely sighted on the lakes and
w. e aus IN not weather. There can be lit
90, GouDt mat the caribous method of es-
ms ue IlleS and heat in the summer
,ail' '''S Is TO settle himself on the noun
Vi ', u. OF highlands, where he remains un-
e Iut'ns season begins in September.
The r period of the year the antlers of
orltl 'iaIe are perfect, his neck is twice the
~ ana SIZE and his strength and vitali-
sgai. sueh that he will sometimes carry
ny DIS much lead as a moose
les 49, i''ou seems to have a most rest
has,. ana careless manner of growing his
tbs, NO pa" of antlers are ever found
fact I n resemble any other pair. and in
se5o,I "' ioIns worn by the individual are
bave V0Sey mated. Some specimens
which "o brow prongs, the points of
bards o,eIIAp each other like clasped
conn.,, o'uerS nave one perfect branch ac-
nav oy mere spike: others again
ann par OF spikes unadorned with
10 n. LINUS The old bucks are the first
Them .n 'helr horns and the first to shed
abont me shedding process commences
poss2. NoN' % and Dec. il is almost i'm
go5d .' 10 ma caribou with really
,hor rri3 o norns. On Nov 20. 1895. Ar
Il b4,5 'lSIe saw three bun carbon in
Vs., ,, "''r Bald Mountain on the Nor
ed bo.t Hl'hi One of the buUs retain
. horn " Oh his horns, one had dronned
t5.r ana third had dronnad bo 1,pe sc