parts of the neck, etc., 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 meantime been deposited.*

(Footnote.  “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 larvae 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.”  Dr. Richardson’s Journal.)

The reindeer 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 snow first begins to melt on the sides of the hills and early in May, when large patches of the ground are visible, they are on the banks of the Copper-Mine River.  The females take the lead in this spring migration and bring forth their young on the sea-coast about the end of May or beginning of June.  There are certain spots or passes well-known to the Indians, through which the deer invariably pass in their migrations to and from the coast and it has been observed that they always travel against the wind.  The principal food of the reindeer in the barren grounds consists of the Cetraria nivalis and cucullata, Cenomyce rangiferina, Cornicularia ochrileuca, and other lichens, and they also eat the hay or dry grass which is found in the swamps in autumn.  In the woods they feed on the different lichens which hang from the trees.  They are accustomed to gnaw their fallen antlers and are said also to devour mice.

The weight of a full-grown barren-ground deer, exclusive of the offal, varies from ninety to one hundred and thirty pounds.  There is however a much larger kind found in the woody parts of the country whose carcass weighs from two hundred to two hundred and forty pounds.  This kind never leaves the woods but its skin is as much perforated by the gadfly as that of the others, a presumptive proof that the smaller species are not driven to the sea-coast solely by