The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-08-05
FEW BARREN LANDCARIBOU
LABRADOR INDIANS LIKE IF T
 STARYE TO DEATH.

The Real American ReIndeer-They
 Furnish Food, Clothing and Tents to
 Four Tribes-Thought the Herds
 Have Left the Coast by New Trail.
 Thomas Curtness, full blooded Mon tagnais Indian, has just returned to civilization from the Lake Mistassini country, between Lake St. John and Hudson Bay, one of the most inhospi- table parts of the interior of Labrador. He has been at the head of an ex- petition for fur company and reports a considerable falling off in the supply of furs and much distress among the northern Indians on account of the partial failure in some localities of the Barren Land caribou.
 This animal, which must not be con founded with the woodland caribou, known to American hunters in Canada, is the true reindeer of the north, being very much smaller than the denizen of Canadian forests. The antlers are large in comparison with the size of the animal. and exceedingly ornamental. In their early stage they contain sub stance having the flavor of marrow, which is much esteemed by the Indians.
 The shortness of the reindeer's hair and the lightness of the skin when properly dressed make 1t the most ap- propriate article for winter clothing in these high attitudes. The best and warnest dresses are made of the skins of the young deer, killed in August, for after that month the hair becomes long and brittle The skins have so many holes drilled into them by the larvae of the gadly that eight or ten are required to make suit of clothing for a grown person.
 But they are. so good protection that with the addition of a blanket of the same material any person may bivouac in the snow with safety.
 The hoofs of this variety of reindeer are wonderfully adapted to the coun- try it inhabits; for instead of being narrow and pointed, like those of the moose and red deer, they are broad, flat and spreading, a formation not only useful in preventing the animal from sinking in the snow, but in shovelling the snow from rock-growing lichens, upon which 1t feeds.
 When driven by stress of weather into clumps of trees for shelter, the rein deer are saved the trouble of digging for food, since a favorite diet Is found by them in a species of Ichen hanging from the trees, which has been called reindeer moss.
 In June, when the sun has dried up the lichens, the deer aresto be seen in full march toward the seacoast. to graze upon the sprouting herbs and the dry grass of the preceding year. They commence their return to the south in September, and reach the vicinity of the woods in October, at which time the males are in good condition.
 The reindeer supplies food to the cop per Indians, Dog Ribs and Hare Indians, and almost absolute destitution pre- vails when the animals disappear or cross from the Barren Lands by some other than the usual routes.
 Some such deviation probably oc- cured during last autumn and winter and it is feared that when dispatches arrive this autumn from the more northern posts along the Arctic shores of the Dominion it will be found that there has been a great loss of life among the Indian tribes of the coast and of the Barren Lands.
 Some of the aboriginal tribes of far Northern America still employ the horns of the reindeer for making their fish spears and hooks, and previously to the introduction of iron by the traders, ice chisels and various other utensils were made of them.
 In dressing the skins the shinebone, split longitudina1ly, is used for the purpose of scraping off the air, after 1t has been repeatedly moistened and rubbed; the skins are then smeared with the brains of the animal until they acquire a soft, spongy character; and lastly are suspended over a fire