244 



NATURE 



[May 29, 1919 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



[The Sditor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 

 pressed by his correspondents. Neithe,r can he undertake to 

 return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manu- 

 scripts intended for this or any other part of Nature. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] 



The Canadian Government and the Proposed Hunting 

 of Caribou with Aeroplanes. 



In several English periodicals that have reached 

 me I find reference to the correspondence in the Times 

 concerning a suggestion emanating from Toronto that 

 our barren-ground caribou might be driven in large 

 numbers into corrals by means of aeroplanes and 

 slaughtered in order to increase the meat supply. 

 Such a suggestion has naturally created some alarm 

 in the minds of many naturalists, spoi'jtsmen, and 

 others in England, and hopes have been expressed 

 that no such scheme vi^ould be permitted. 



It is with the view of assuring zoologists in England 

 and all those who are interested in the conservation 

 of wild life that they need have no fear that such a 

 scheme would be sanctioned by the Canadian Govern- 

 jnent, if it follows, as is usual, the recommendations 

 of its advisers, that I am taking the opportunity of 

 presenting a few of the facts concerning the subject. 



On the recommendation of the Commission of Con- 

 servation and the Government's Advisory Board on 

 Wild Life Protection, an inter-departmental committee, 

 the North-West Game Act was completely revised two 

 years ago. This Act governs the protection of game, 

 fur-bearing animals, and wild life generally through- 

 out the North-West Territories, which region includes 

 all the portion of Canada north of latitude 60° (ex- 

 cluding Yukon Territory, which is governed, however, 

 by an ordinance generally similar in its provisions, and 

 Quebec). The main reasons for this revision were 

 to give greater protection to the bison, musk-ox, 

 caribou, and fur-bearing animals. 



No person, other than a native, may hunt or kill 

 caribou or other game without a licence from the 

 Minister of the Interior. Such control is exercised 

 for the express purpose of preventing harmful or 

 excessive killing. 



The idea of hunting caribou with aeroplanes is not 

 new. Similar proposals have been made by different 

 people at various times since the development of the 

 aeroplane and its use in the war; some enthusiasts 

 have added Maxim-guns to their means of offence. 

 But to all such suggestions a deaf ear has been 

 turned. During the war repeated efforts were made 

 to secure a general relaxation of the game laws to 

 permit the killing of game for food owing to the high 

 price of meat. The Canadian Government resolutely 

 opposed any such action, and a similar firm stand 

 was taken by the Provincial Governments. It was 

 realised that any such relaxation of the laws and the 

 resulting excessive Idlling would mean the destruction 

 almost to the point of extermination of many species of 

 oi'.r game animals. The utilisation under Gk)vernment 

 control of the enormous herds of barren-ground 

 caribou as a means of supplementing the domestic 

 meat supply was very carefully considered by the 

 Advisory Board on Wild Life Protection, but it was 

 decided that the existing means of transportation and 

 storage rendered any scheme of that nature imprac- 

 ticable at the present time. There is no doubt that 

 with adequate protection it will be possible in the 

 future to utilise the caribou, and, we hope, the musk- 

 ox, which are the grazing animals most suited to that 

 vast territory. But at the present time a policy of 

 careful protection is being carried on by the 

 Canadian Government. 



All who are interested in the conservation of wild 

 NO. 2587, VOL. 103] 



life may rest assured that the Canadian Government 

 is carrying on a vigorous policy in this matter. In 

 February last the first national conference on wild- 

 life protection was held in Ottawa, and attended by 

 oflicials and representatives from all the provinces of 

 the Dominion. I am now preparing a report on the 

 wild life of Canada and its conservation, which will 

 probably be issued by the Commission of Conservation 

 during the year. This volume will indicate the extent 

 to which those responsible for the conservation of our 

 Canadian wild life are fulfilling their responsibilities to 

 posterity. Canadians are realising that Canada is the 

 last stronghold for the greater portion of the big-game 

 animals of North America, and are taking the neces- 

 sary measures to ensure their adequate protection 

 before it is_ too late. The rescue of the bison from 

 the border-line of extermination will for ever stand as 

 a monument to the foresight of the Canadian Govern- 

 ment. C. Gordon Hewitt. 

 Department of Agriculture, Ottawa, Canada, 

 Mav 2. 



X-Rays and British industry. 



The remarks made by Major G. W. C. Kaye in his 

 article upon "X-Rays and British Industry" 

 (Nature, May 8) reflect so gravely upon British 

 manufacturers that I must ask for the courtesy of a 

 little Sipace in order to comment on them. 



Major Kaye apparently takes the view that British 

 manufacturers, in the first place, persist in recom- 

 mending induction coils rather than the moi-e up-to- 

 date transformers or interrupterless machines ; and,, 

 secondly, do not put really intelligent design and con- 

 struction even into the manufacture of the coils. 



It is quite true that the invention of the interrupter- 

 less machine was due originally to an American, 

 namely, Mr. H. Clyde Snook, but my firm placed 

 machines of this type on the market before, I think, 

 any American firm had produced them, and can 

 certainly claim to be the pioneers in Europe of 

 modern X-ray apparatus. 



The difficulty in this country has lain not so much 

 with the manufacturer as with the conservatism of 

 medical men, the majority of whom have refused 

 for years even to consider a closed-circuit transformer 

 as compared with an induction coil, and, to a certain 

 extent, hold the same opinion even to the present day. • 



Even now, although we are selling interrupterless 

 machines almost faster than we can make them, it 

 is unfortunately the case that the bulk of our output 

 has to be sold abroad, and that there is still, com- 

 paratively speaking, little demand for them in this 

 country, the medical public being still apparently con- 

 tent with putting in apparatus which would be 

 laughed at in almost any other country in the world. 



I should also* like to say that, although I regard 

 the induction coil as obsolete for ordinarv radiography, 

 it does still possess certain advantages for other work, 

 notably therapeutic treatment, and I cannot agree 

 with Major Kaye in his statement that the induction 

 coil of to-day differs but little from its predecessor 

 of Spottiswoode's day. 



My firm bought the business of the late Mr. Alfred 

 Apps, and therefore I am in a position to contrast 

 the methods of Mr. Apps (rightly referred to in his 

 day as the "prince of coil-makers") with the methods 

 of the present day, and I can assure Major Kayo 

 that progress has been a little more than he thinks, 

 and that there have been rather more intelligent design 

 and electrical knowledge applied to the instrument 

 than he quite appreciates. 



R. S. Wright 

 (Newton and Wright, Ltd.)- 



72 Wigmore Street, W. i. 



