LETTER XX. 233 



Sometimes it is the entire disappearance of a 

 game beast which causes an alteration in the 

 law ; sometimes it is the advent of a com- 

 paratively dense population in a country where, 

 a few years ago, the only means of support for 

 the casual wanderer was the slaughter of game 

 in season or out of season. Whatever the cause, 

 the fact remains that even the Fish and Game 

 Club of Montreal is not thoroughly posted up to 

 date in the game-laws of the different provinces 

 of Canada. I don't want to libel my country- 

 men, but I think it is true, as a general rule, 

 that they are possessed with the idea that there 

 are no game-laws out of England. 



This, of course, is a very grievous error. The 

 Canadians and Americans, for instance, are far 

 too near akin to us to let their best field-sports 

 perish without a struggle to preserve them. 



For awhile they have been so busy making a 

 new world and building up a new people, that 

 they have somewhat overlooked such minor 

 matters as the protection of wild beasts in a 

 country which they found almost too full of 

 them. But the extinction of one species of great 

 game, and the ominous decrease in the numbers 

 of several other species, has thoroughly awakened 

 our cousins to the necessity for protection. 



America as a whole (Canada and the United 



