The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-01-07

The Red Deer of Newfoundland Kill
ed by the Hundreds, and Yet Their
Number Does Not Grow Less.


ed by the Hundreds, nnd Yet Their
Number Does Not Grow Less.
Correspondence of the Toronto Mail and
Empire.
st. Johns, N. F., Dec. 25-Newfoundland
is probably the only country in the world
where venison, sailed or fresh, is a staple
article of food for the masses during he
winter months. When one recalls the
rhapsodies of poets and novelists of the
olden times over the "haunch of venison,"
and the pleasure of the chase. the matter
of-fact manner in which the island hunter
goes about the work Of procuring a win
ter's supply of deer meat seems prosaic in
the extreme. At this writing hundreds of
poor settlers are traversing the uplands of
the interior, stalking the caribou, and salt
ing down and barrelng away the flesh for
the support of themselves and their fami-
lies. All through the great Northern
BAYS this provision is being stored for the
coming five months, when 1t shares with
the prevailing Goldfish the duty of keeping
alive the fisher folks who are cut off from
the outer world by the impenerable ice
barrier which covers the North Atlantic
Newfoundland is the home of the carl
bou and in countless herds they roam
through its interior. Foreign sportsmen
are every year visiting US In greater num-
bers, and our fame as a hunting ground
grows in the United States and England.
These sportsmen, and latterly women, too,
kill their three to eight deer each, but their
bags do not appreciably diminish the size
of the herds, and what they kill is only
1.-THE of the number destroyed by the
settlers. Although this killing has contin-
ued for years the best authorities say the
.a;F., I..rr
for the areas over which they range un-
disturbed is as large as Ireland. they being
only got at from the rivers or along the
railway line which cuts through the heart
Of the country, but has no spur roads to
quarter up the territory. Therefore, the
deer are practically safe from molestation
when they are few miles back from the
rails, along which the settlers ambush
themselves and shoot down the graceful
creatures as they cross the line on their
annual migration southwark to the for
ests in which they find shelter to pass the
winter
When the island fishermen returns from
Labrador in the fall where they had been
engaged all summer in their quest for cod.
they organize shooting parties 10 go up
country and get a supply of deer meat.
They are methodical in the extreme. every
proceeding displaying a businesslike grasp
of the situation. In their boats they
make tnelT way up iHe great rivers WnlCn
give access to the interior, and at suitable
points they encamp. On board the boats
are barrels filled with salt, and large bun
dies of slaves to be made into other barrels
as required. A likely deer-track is chos-
en-, and the men post themselves at inter-
walls along it, and when a herd of carl
bou pass a wel-directed volley lays most
of the animals dead. With the exrertness
| alone possible to men who have to prac-
tice every trade, they soon skin and cut
up the deer, the barrels of salt are emp
tied Of their contents and the meat Is
packed therein, and as the Slaughter
grows the other barrels are prepared un-
I'll the supply of salt Is exhausted. They
then reload their boats and return home.
| taking a carcass or two for immediate use
which is generally distributed among
friends.
Other parties who cannot reach the deer
"barrens" by boat, go by train, paying
freight inward for their barrels and salt,
and outwad for the meat they may get
These hunters are dropped off al any place
along the line they may desire, and go 10
work in mucn the same fashion as their
neighbors.
Scarcely day passes without from fifty
to eighty carcasses of deer being brought
out by the train from the upands for con-
veyance to the remoter coast settlements
by schooner or mail boat. Magnificent
heads and antlers are loaded into baggage
vans and freight cars to adorn some fish
errnan's cottage or to be sold to a wander
ing trader next season for a song Spleen
did hides are likewise bundled into the
cars 10 be roughly cleaned and dried at
home, where they make excellent floor
spreads, and are often used by the poorer
classes to sleep on. II is roughly esu-
mated that between 1000 and 5000 caribou
are killed in the island every fan by the
fishermen, and venison is as common to
them during the winter as IL is a dellcacy
to the rnoneyed percentages of the United
States and England.
As the fall advances the deer steadily
work south, and from mid-December I'M
IN February they are only to be found
in the thick forests back from the south
coast Into these regions the settlers
from that shore penetrate about New
Years, when the ground is frozen suh-
clently to admit Of their crossing the boys
an6 marshes without damage, and here
they organize great battues of the deer,
which are shot down literally by the hun
dreds. That this is no exaggeraton Is
shown by the fact that last January the
coastal mall steamer Grand Lake brought
TO st. Johns IN two trips All and 576 car
cases Of caribou killed by the south coast
settlers hauled out 10 the shore on dog
teams and thence shipped to this port to
be sold in the open market for what they
will fetch. The carcasses are bundled
ashore. taken to the premises OF the sew
eral consignees and unceremoniously
dumped off the slcds into the snow pies
usl,ioJl ananrnlaa- tba etroots at that sea