4 86 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



sanctuaries. The Americans are protecting their seals by restric- 

 tions on the numbers, ages and sex of those killed ; and doing so 

 successfully. The fur trade is open to the same sort of wise 

 restriction, when necessary, to the protection of wild fur by the 

 breeding of tame, as in the fox farms and to the benefits of 

 sanctuaries. Marketable game, plumage and eggs can be regu- 

 lated at outports and markets. And the extension of suitable 

 laws to non-game animals, coupled with the establishment of 

 sanctuaries, would soon improve conditions all round, especially 

 in the interest of business itself. No one wants his business to 

 be destroyed. But if Labrador is left without control indefi- 

 nitely, every business dealing with the products of wild life will 

 be obliged to play the suicidal game of competitive grab till 

 the last source of supply is exhausted and capital, income and 

 employment all go together. 



3. Indians and Eskimos. — The Eskimos are few and mostly 

 localised. The Indians stand to gain by anything that will keep the 

 fur trade in full vigour, as they are mostly hunters and trappers. 

 Restriction on the number of skins, if that should prove necessary 

 and certainly on the sale of all poisons, could be made operative. 

 Strychnine is said to kill animals eating the carcases even so far 

 as to the seventh remove. Close seasons and sanctuaries are 

 difficult to enforce with all Indians. But the registration of 

 trappers, the enforcement of laws, the employment of Indians as 

 guides for sportsmen, and other means, would have a salutary 

 effect. The full-bloods, unfortunately, do not take kindly to 

 guiding. Indians wishing to change their way of life or proving 

 persistent lawbreakers might be hived in reserves with their 

 wives and families. The reserves themselves would cost 

 nothing, the Indians could find employment as other Indians 

 have and the expense of establishing would be a bagatelle. As 

 a matter of fact, in spite of all the bad bargains having always 

 been on the Indian side when sales and treaties were made with 

 the whites, there is enough money to the credit of the Indians in 

 the hands of the Government to establish a dozen hives and 

 keep the people in them as idle as drones on the mere interest of 

 it. But good hunting grounds are better than good hives. 



4. Sport. — Sport should have a great future in Labrador. 

 Inland game birds, except ptarmigan, are the only kind of which 

 there is never likely to be a great abundance, owing to the 

 natural scarcity of their food. But, besides the big game on land 



