88 QUEBEC. 



season is an art that not one man in a thousand can 

 attain to, and consequently they are well able to take care 

 of themselves at this period, and, indeed, at all times, 

 save in the late winter and early spring, when the snow is 

 deepest and when the females are in calf. This, unfortu- 

 nately, is the season when moose are chiefly slaughtered, 

 and it is found to be impossible to enforce the law for their 

 protection over such an immense and thinly populated 

 district as the forests of Lower Canada. 



Cariboo are found all over Lower Canada on both banks 

 of the St. Lawrence : sometimes these wandering deer are 

 found in the greenwoods, sometimes on the barrens and 

 on the bare mountains. The best hunting grounds are 

 below Quebec on both banks of the river. In parts of 

 the peninsula of Gaspe they are very plentiful and quite 

 undisturbed by the hunter. In the Shickshock mountains 

 and in the barrens at the heads of the rivers very good 

 bags can be made. In the deep snow in spring cariboo 

 often come quite close to the settlement. I have never 

 seen the Virginian deer in Lower Canada, but I am told 

 there are a few on the borders of the New England States 

 and probably also on the Ottawa. 



There is excellent wild-fowl shooting in spring and 

 autumn in many places along the St. Lawrence, both 

 above and below Quebec. Geese are shot chiefly in the 

 spring. The most recent enactment as regards wild-fowl 

 shooting is as follows : " No person shall fire at, hunt, 

 take, kill, or destroy any wild swan, wild goose, or .any 

 kind of wild duck, sea duck, widgeon, or teal, between the 

 first day of May and the first day of September of any year 



