ANIMAL SANCTUARIES IN LABRADOR 493 



press the point that there's money in the zoophilists — plenty 

 of it. A gentleman in whom we can have the greatest con- 

 fidence and who was not particularly inexpert at the subject 

 has made an under-valuation to the extent of no less than 75 

 per cent, when trying to estimate the amount of money made by 

 the transportation companies directly out of travel to " Nature " 

 places for sport, study, scenery and other kinds of outing. 

 There is money in it now, millions of it ; and there is going to 

 be much more money in it later on. Civilised town-dwelling 

 men, women and children are turning more and more to wild 

 Nature for a holiday. And their interest in Nature is widening 

 and deepening in proportion. I do not say this as a rhetorical 

 flourish. I have taken particular pains to find out the actual 

 growth of this interest, which is shown in ways as comprehen- 

 sive as educational curricula, picture books for children, all sorts 

 of " Animal " works, " zoos," museums, lectures, periodicals and 

 advertisements ; and I find all facts pointing the same way. 

 The president of one of the greatest publishers' associations 

 in the world told me, without being asked, that the most 

 marked and the steadiest development in the trade was in 

 "Nature" books of every kind. And this reminds me of the 

 countless readers who rarely hear the call of the wild them- 

 selves, except through word and picture but who would bitterly 

 and justifiably resent the silencing of that call in the very places 

 where it ought to be heard at its best. 



Now, where can the call of wild Nature be heard to greater 

 advantage than in Labrador, which is a land made on purpose to 

 be the home of fur, fin and feather ? And it is accessible, in the 

 best of all possible ways — by sea. It is about equidistant from 

 central Canada, England and the States — a wilderness park for 

 all of them. Means of communication are multiplying fast. 

 Even now, it would be possible, in a good steamer, to take a 

 month's holiday from London to Labrador, spending twenty 

 days on the coast and only ten at sea. I think we may be quite 

 sure of such travel in the near future ; that is, of course, if the 

 travellers have a land of life, not death, to come to. And an 

 excellent thing about it is that Labrador cannot be overrun and 

 spoilt like what our American friends so aptly call a " pocket 

 wilderness." Ten wild Englands, properly conserved, cannot 

 be brought into the catalogue of common things quite so easily 

 as all that ! Besides, Labrador enjoys a double advantage in 



