The value of construction contracts awarded 

 in the West during the month of September 

 amounted to $6,856,800, being more than 

 double the figures of 1921, while new work 

 contemplated during the month reached a total 

 of $4,624,500. The price of building materials 

 during the last few months has practically 

 been stationary, with possibly little change 

 during the next few months. Western pro- 

 jects for the next year are numerous, and ex- 

 pectations are that there will be a reduction 

 in costs. However, though conditions are on 

 a more satisfactory level, it is too early to 

 predict to what extent there may be a reaction 

 either upward or downward. Undoubtedly 

 some materials have yet to reach a lower level. 



The Quest of the Moose 



At the time of writing, Canada is in the middle of its 

 moose and deer hunting season, and countless sportsmen 

 who for eleven months of the year follow a prosaic and 

 unromantic routine, chained to office desks, caught in the 

 trammels of modern city life, have turned their backs 

 upon civilization, adopted the up-to-date version of 

 primitive life, and are renewing their acquaintanceship 

 with the Northern woods. In these short autumnal days, 

 of sera poplar and flaming maple, they have joined again 

 the comradeship of the camp fire; are experiencing once 

 more that exhilaration of spirit at saving the day break 

 over somj mighty lake; and ara learning again that she r 

 joy in awakening in the morning with the blankets white 

 with frost and of shiveringly washing in water that still 

 reflects the stars of night. 



It has been estimated that there are only seven thou- 

 sand moose left in the entire United States. Herein lies 

 the reason why in recent years so many big-game hu.iters 

 from across the line have come up over the border and why 

 the traffic of sportsmen from the Republic each year 

 exhibits a substantial increment. By no means is this 

 movement a new one. Moose hunters have been coming 

 from the United States to favorite woods in New Bruns- 

 wick, Nova Scotia and other provinces for twenty-five 

 and thirty years. Their camps and lodges in the forest 

 have all the appearance of permanent establishments, and 

 residents come to look for their return every year when 

 the mating season of the moose comes round. The 

 Northern woods have a subtle magic all their own, and 

 seldom relinquish their hold upon any man once they 

 have placed their lure upon him. 



Good Hunting in Every Province 



There is good moose hunting in practically every 

 province of Canada, and, roughly, about ten thousand 

 moose are killed in the Dominion each year. Of these it 

 should be safe to attribute one-half to visiting hunters. 

 This seems a heavy slaughter, but far from there being 

 any danger of exhaustion from this toll, authorities in 

 different sections of the country are of the opinion that 

 a killing of twice this extent might be made each year and 

 the natural increase definitely offset any tendency to the 

 extinction of tha monarch of Canadian fauna. This 

 knowledge is consoling in view of the greater favor with 

 which United States hunters are regarding the Canadian 

 forest fastnesses each year. It is gratifying to the Dom- 

 inion also, who would see this traffic and its attendant 

 revenue increasing, and learns such might be accomplished 

 without endangering the source of supply. 



In efforts to encourage the flow of visiting hunters to 

 her forests the Dominion is coming to see the advisability 

 of meeting the requirements of these men as far as is 

 possible. She realizes that, for the main, these hunters 

 are busy business and professional men who, at some 

 trouble and sacrifice, have temporarily set aside their 



manners of earning a livelihood for a much-needed holiday, 

 and that the time they have at their disposal for a vacation 

 is brief and limited. Generally they come to Canada 

 with the ambition of carrying away a moose head to adorn 

 their homes and a useful supply of meat against the winter 

 months. The Dominion accepts it as its business to see 

 that their objects are satisfied as much as possible. The 

 hunters of this kind cannot give up undue time to lengthy 

 expeditions, and by reason of their daily occupations 

 cannot withstand the rigors and hardships such extended 

 trips would involve. 



Government Assists in Many Ways 



To this end sportsmen, trappers, nature lovers and 

 others, in various parts of Canada, have gone into the 

 business of being hosts to this class of hunters. They 

 have established headquarters in the woods, from which 

 hunting parties set out, some of the more elaborate of 

 which, in equipment and conveniences, leave little to be 

 desired in comparison with modern hotels. These men 

 make it their business to know the moose grounds. They 

 are prepared to equip expeditions. They have staffs of 

 guides available. They almost guarantee to a hunter, 

 giving up ten days to the chase, the desired trophy to take 

 back with him. There is no undue hardship entailed 

 upon visitors. The guides are wonderful men. They 

 paddle, cook and perform all the laborious tasks, and, as a 

 final undertaking, lure the monarch of the woods from his 

 haunts. All that is expected of the hunter, if he really 

 wants the animal, is to shoot straight. It is hunting de 

 luxe, the chase concentrated into a minimum of time with 

 a maximum of comfort, which is what the average man, 

 who is a hunter for less than a month each year, desires. 



The Canadian game laws permit hunters, visiting and 

 resident, to kill one bull moose and one buck deer (two 

 deer in certain provinces) after the opening of the season. 

 Cows are protected, and naturally it is not permitted to 

 kill calves. Though the toll of the woods, at this rate, is 

 fairly heavy at the present time, the extent of the forest 

 fastnesses ensures their being well stocked, and Canada 

 can witness the increase in visiting hunters to her domain 

 each year without apprehension for some time. As long 

 as the strict game laws enacted are rigidly enforced and 

 forest fires rigorously guarded against, the lordly moose 

 will maintain supremacy over his wild kingdom, safe in 

 intelligent supervision and preservation. 



Across Canada North Bay 



North Bay is the latest town in the Dominion 

 to reach civic maturity, and is shortly to be 

 added to the growing list of Canadian incor- 

 porated cities. It has reached this stage after 

 long, unostentatious travel, bearing itself with a 

 degree of modesty which might belie the in- 

 trinsic importance of the town, springing from 

 its strategic location. Its growth is the re- 

 flection of the progress of that vast and com- 

 paratively little developed country to the north 

 of it known as Northern Ontario, a region which 

 has produced the world's richest silver camp, 

 one of its wealthiest gold regions, has made a 

 mark in paper-making, and possesses extensive 

 tracts of fertile agricultural land. In the in- 

 creasing population and enterprise of this 

 tremendous territory, with its wealth and 

 variety of natural resources, lies promise of 

 yet greater things for North Bay, and investors, 

 industrialists and others interested in the 

 potentialities ol New Ontario cannot profitably 

 ignore its gate of entrance and logical centre 

 of distribution. 



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