ANIMAL SANCTUARIES IN LABRADOR 477 



life in the most beneficial abundance and quite able to do so 

 indefinitely, if a reasonable amount of general protection is 

 combined with well-situated sanctuaries. 



The fauna is much more richly varied than people who think 

 of Labrador as nothing but an arctic barren are inclined to 

 suppose. The fisheries have been known for centuries, 

 especially the cod, which has a prerogative right to the simple 

 word "fish." There are herring and lobsters in the Gulf, 

 plenty of salmon and trout in most of the rivers, winninish in 

 all the tributary waters of the Hamilton as well as in Lake 

 St. John, whitefish in the lakes and so forth. Then, the stone- 

 carrying chub is one of the most interesting creatures in the 

 world. . . . But the fish and fisheries have problems of their own 

 too great for incidental treatment ; and I shall pass on to the 

 birds and mammals. 



Yet I must not forget the "flies" — who that has felt them 

 once can ever forget them ? Labrador is not a very happy 

 hunting-ground for the entomologist. But all it lacks in variety 

 of kinds it more than makes up in number of individuals, 

 especially in the detestable trio of bot-flies, blackflies and 

 mosquitoes. The bot-fly infests the caribou and will probably 

 infest the reindeer. The blackfly and mosquito attack both 

 man and beast in maddening millions. The mosquito is not 

 malarious. But that is the only bad thing he is not. Destruc- 

 tion is " conservation " so far as " flies," parasites and disease 

 germs are concerned. 



Labrador has over 200 species of birds, from humming-birds 

 and sanderlings to eagles, gannets, loons and herons. Among 

 those able to hold their own, with proper encouragement, are 

 the following : two loons, two murres, the puffin, guillemot, 

 razor-billed auk, dovekie and pomarine jaeger ; six gulls — ivory, 

 kittiwake, glaucous, great black-back, herring and Bonaparte; 

 two terns— arctic and common ; the fulmar, two shearwaters, 

 two cormorants, the red-breasted merganser and the gannet ; 

 seven ducks — the black, golden-eye, old squaw and harlequin, 

 with the American, king and Greenland eiders ; three scoters ; 

 four geese — snow, blue, brant and Canada ; two phalaropes, 

 several sandpipers, with the Hudsonian godwit and both 

 yellowlegs ; two snipes ; five plovers ; and the Eskimo and 

 Hudsonian curlews. These two curlews should be absolutely 

 closed to all shooting everywhere for several seasons. They 



