100 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE 
nually by way of the Arctic coast by whalers and traders 
to San Francisco and Seattle. 
The best fur traders now admit that the musk-ox can 
only be saved from extermination by the absolute prohibi- 
tion of its slaughter for commercial purposes. 
In 1914, and again in 1916, I laid before the Commission 
of Conservation specific recommendations regarding the 
amendment of the Northwest Game Act to secure much- 
needed protection of our northern mammals, including the 
musk-ox :* 
(a) The prohibition of the killing of the musk-ox except 
under license, which should not permit the taking by bona 
fide hunters or other duly authorized persons, of more 
than two skins and two heads under each license. Na- 
tives or bona fide explorers to be allowed to kill musk-oxen 
for food for their own use, but not in order to secure the 
skins. 
(b) The prohibition of the killing of musk-oxen on Vic- 
toria, Banks, and Melville Islands, thereby constituting these 
islands permanent reserves for musk-oxen and as centres 
for their natural distribution to other parts. 
These recommendations have since been put into effect 
in the Northwest Game Act, 1917, and the regulations 
thereunder, which provide for the permanent protection 
of the musk-ox, except in such zones and during such 
period as may be prescribed under the act, and at the pres- 
ent time the killing of musk-oxen is everywhere forbidden 
in Canadian territory. Section 38 of the regulations sets 
forth the sole conditions under which musk-oxen may now 
be killed; the section reads as follows: 
38. Musk-ox may be hunted and killed by Indians, Eskimos or half- 
breeds who are bona fide inhabitants of the Northwest Territories, but 
only when they are actually in need of the meat of such musk-ox to pre- 
* Seventh Annual Report, Commission of Conservation, 1916, p. 33. 
