The Slaughter of Big Game, &c. 39 



absence of game on the mainland of British Columbia. Lieutenant 

 Mayne, R.N., the famous explorer of the country between Jervis 

 Inlet and Lilloet River, which is to-day practically in the same 

 wild state in which it was thirty or forty years ago, wrote 

 thus: 



"The same absence of animal life was observable on this journey 

 as I remarked on my excursion last year. Here, where man hardly 

 ever comes, one would think game would abound, but we only saw 

 one deer, half a dozen grouse, and as many small birds. We saw 

 the marks of several bears and sufficient indications of deer to show 

 us that the solitary one we had seen was not the only one in British 

 Columbia." On page 221, when describing a trip into the interior, 

 in the neighbourhood of Shushwap, he says: "The absence of 

 animal life is also very remarkable." Many other equally well- 

 informed writers could be quoted in support of my contention 

 that British Columbia's big game resources are on the whole 

 disappointing, and at best very '' spotty." 



Returning to the question of unbiassed opinions in expressing 

 views concerning British Columbia sport, it is probably needless to 

 warn the reader against accepting the advice of persons financially 

 interested in booming the sporting resources of a country. Railway 

 companies and the silverv-tongued land speculators or " real estate 

 agents " are the worst sinners in this respect, hence, caveat emptor ! 

 To the amusing, not to call them extraordinary, discussions on the 

 Game Bill in the House of Assembly in Victoria during the session 

 of 1892; another typical instance how history comes to be written 

 can be added. At that time an English resident in Victoria, who 

 very soon afterwards came rather prominently before the British 

 sporting world as the editor and chief contributor to a well-known 

 standard series of English books on sport, was editing a local 

 newspaper in Victoria. In letters and leading articles he advocated 

 the repeal of certain game laws then about to be passed by the 

 legislature, and in doing so he gave expression to opinions 

 regarding British Columbia's big game resources which hardly 

 bore out the very high opinions which he published in the 



