CHAPTER X 
RESERVES FOR GAME AND WILD LIFE IN CANADA 
UnbeER the peculiar conditions that exist on the North 
American continent, where the opening up of enormous 
areas of land by agricultural development, the penetration 
of virgin forest by railroads, lumbermen, and prospectors, 
and the reclamation of the wilderness have led to wide- 
spread destruction of the haunts of our wild life, with a 
consequent disappearance of the greater portion of it, other 
measures than the promulgation of game laws, which at 
the best are difficult to enforce completely, are necessary 
to insure the preservation of what wild life remains. Of 
such protective measures by far the most important is the 
establishment of wild-life reserves, refuges, or sanctuaries 
in which the native mammals and birds are protected. 
Such wild-life reserves should include a sufficient area to 
provide ample natural summer and winter range for the 
wild life that they are intended to protect. They should 
be, and as a rule are, unsuitable for agricultural develop- 
ment. Nor should they include mining or other commer- 
cial properties that are likely to interfere with their purpose. 
So far as is possible the boundaries of such reserves should 
be well defined, and the necessary steps should be taken to 
secure within the reserve areas the required protection to 
the wild life they contain, and all protective measures 
should be rigidly enforced. 
THE NATIONAL PARKS 
We have reason to be proud of the withdrawal from settle- 
ment and establishment by the Dominion Government of 
extensive tracts of land as national parks, for the purpose, 
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