40 Sport and Life. 



English series and other works intended to meet the eye of 

 the British sportsman. In the latter he says, " there is no 

 doubt that the home par excellence of the wapiti to-day, is 

 in the dense timber of the Olympian range in Washington, 

 Oregon, and, to a certain extent, in Vancouver Island"; while for 

 bighorn and bear he was even more emphatic in his praise 

 of British Columbia. These attractive recommendations his 

 newspaper articles intended for a local circle of Victoria readers, 

 and written at the time he was completing the two volumes of 

 the series I have alluded to, do not voice. " There is reasonable 

 hope," he wrote, " that Victoria will again this year benefit by 

 the advent of moneyed strangers prepared to part with their 

 dollars for the sake of a few hides and horns, or rather for the sake 

 of the remote chance of obtaining these trophies " (Daily News, 

 Victoria, April 9, 1892). In another passage he acknowledges 

 that " three parties of good men came back this season from good 

 hunting districts empty-handed." From other passages one infers 

 that one of the objects in inducing Britishers to come out for sport is 

 to thereby benefit the land speculators and hotel-keepers ; at least, 

 such is the impression the following passages leave on one's mind : 

 " The rich men of Europe come out here to hunt our sheep and 

 bear and wapiti, leaving a hundred pounds in the country for every 

 beast which they took out of it. ... Nor is this the chief part 

 of the good which the bighorn, fairly killed, brings to British 

 Columbia. The men who hunt big game must be moneyed men, 

 more or less, and not only do they bring a good many dollars into 

 our hotels, but real estate agents will tell you that a large number 

 of those who come to hunt stay to invest." To ride with the hotel- 

 keepers and real estate 'agents, and to run with the British sports- 

 men in quest of game in British Columbia, are tasks which, I fear, 

 it is somewhat difficult to combine, at least, with advantage to the 

 latter. Of the efficiency of the game laws he speaks thus : " Our 

 game laws are a dead letter. Nobody minds them a bit," and pro- 

 ceeds to declare that of the 10 shooting licences which every 

 stranger should procure before he may shoot a head of big game : 



