MIGRATION 147

ledge of them to themselves, as otherwise, with the very
limited number of animals in that vicinity, they would
soon be slain by the multitude of would-be sportsmen
and market hunters who care not how they get their game
as long as they get it.

It has always seemed to me that the Osborn caribou
do their migrating in a very haphazard manner, and
lately doubts have crept into my mind as to whether
some of them do not occupy the same range all the year
round, At any rate, there are places where there are
always caribou, no matter at what time of the year ;
but whether they have been there all the time or whether
they exchanged feeding grounds with some other herds
is impossible to say. They are great roamers always ;
that is to say, they do not remain in one particular spot
for days or even weeks at a time as sheep and goats do:
they occupy a far more extensive range and they cover
it pretty thoroughly. At times they may stop for a few
days at an exceptionally favourable feeding ground, but
the rule is that they are here one day and perhaps five
or ten miles, or even more, off the next, so that if you
spot a bull you want to kill, it behoves you to go to him
right off, no matter how far you may have to travel, or
you are extremely likely not to find him again. There
are, of course, exceptions to this rule, as there are to
all others, and sometimes they do remain in the same
place for quite a long time. Three or four years ago,
when I was up on a sheep range and had failed to find
any big rams on the mountain I was on, I began to spy
a rather likely looking piece of country on the opposite
side of a valley. There were several basins in view that
might afford refuge to sheep, but they were too distant
for me to be able to decide whether there were any
actually there or not. So my glasses were turned from
the basins to the open hillsides in the vicinity. Before
long, what at that distance appeared a dark dot came
under my observation, and as it moved it was apparent
that it was an animal of some kind; then shortly after-
wards four more dots showed up. They were high up

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