4 American Fisheries Society 



about one-quarter as large as the entire United States, six times 

 the area of the British Isles, and three and a half times as large as 

 either France or Germany. 



Fully ten million acres of our territory is covered with water. 

 Not more than 50,000 square miles of our total of 730,653 square 

 miles is organized territory and even of this latter a large part is 

 still covered with forest growth, and the balance, outside of the 

 cities and towns, is but sparsely populated. Five thousand 

 souls would probably prove to be a very exaggerated estimate of 

 the entire population, whites, Indians and Esquimos, of the 

 northern half of the province, or less than one inhabitant to each 

 70 square miles. In the interior of this vast territory various 

 kinds of fur and feathered game roam practically undisturbed. 

 Marvellous stories are told of the enormous quantities and size 

 of the salmon and sea trout of Ungava Bay, of the white or polar 

 and other bears of our northern coast, and of the trout of the 

 Hamilton and other inland waters. 



The richest and rarest furs of the black, silver, cross and white 

 fox, of the mink, marten, fisher, skunk, otter and muskrat, come 

 from our far north. It is estimated that the Province of Quebec 

 furnishes more than half of the four million dollars worth of furs 

 shipped annually from Canada to the United States, in addition 

 to the large quantities exported via the Hudson Bay route to 

 London and Paris by the Hudson Bay Company, Revillon Freres 

 and others, and without taking into consideration those which 

 are manufactured for local consumption. Until last year the 

 province received no return whatever from its large production 

 of furs, but the new law which I had the honor of submitting to 

 the Legislature, gives my Department perfect control of the 

 trade in native pelts, and imposes upon them a royalty of some- 

 thing like 5 per cent, of their value. Thus the people of the 

 province are now sharing, to a small extent at least, in the large 

 profits which the fur-dealers have been receiving out of one of our 

 country's important natural products. This revenue will give 

 us the means of creating a still better organization for protec- 

 tion and conservation. 



By far the larger production, so far, of Quebec furs marketed 

 are taken in the wild portions of the southern or more settled 

 parts of the province, so that a large measure of protection, 



