LETTER XX. 235 



After wading through the statutes of the 

 different provinces, it will only seem natural that 

 I should add my voice to the voices of those 

 who are already pleading for co-operative legisla- 

 tion, not only between the different states in the 

 Union and the different provinces of the Do- 

 minion, but also between the Union as a whole 

 and the Dominion as a whole, with regard to 

 close times for American fur, fin, and feather, 

 and also for a simplified code of laws in respect 

 to game. 



It is surely absurd that there should be such 

 difference between the close times of different 

 adjoining provinces as to make it lawful, for 

 instance, to kill a snipe a month earlier on one 

 side of a river than on the other. 



Besides the absurdity of such laws, they defeat 

 each other by throwing difficulties in the way of 

 the successful prosecution of those who break 

 them. Further on are set out in tables the close 

 times for big game in the different provinces and 

 terribories of Canada respectively. 



Where no close time is accorded to any par- 

 ticular animal, it is either because it is accounted 

 vermin, or is not supposed to exist in the pro- 

 vince under consideration, so that these tables 

 may afford a glimpse of the natural history of 

 each province as well as a notice of the measure of 



