THE DESTRUCTION OF WILD LIFE 



out of date, doomed when the first settler began 

 to build his log hut. But the game was different. 

 Much of that could have been preserved. To allow 

 it to be destroyed was, to put the matter on the very 

 lowest ground, a scandalous waste of national wealth. 

 Properly preserved, the beavers alone would have 

 ranked amongst Canada's greatest assets ; but they 

 and a host of other species were practically wiped 

 out, thoughtlessly, heedlessly, with no one to raise 

 a voice in protest until it was almost too late. The 

 buffalo, which used to roam the plains in tens of 

 thousands, is now almost extinct, without anyone 

 being richer for the fact. 



I wonder how many wild animals I should have 

 seen had I taken that same trip fifty years ago? The 

 number of them would in all probability have run 

 into thousands. 



As it was, I saw ten or twelve moose only, and 

 many, many dams where in former days the poor 

 little beaver had worked so hard and so patiently to 

 build his home, and had been rewarded by having the 

 poacher mark him down and wipe him and his whole 

 family out. There is something very tragic about 

 those old dams. Personally, I should adopt more 

 drastic methods had I the pleasure of being allowed 

 to deal with the poachers. 



My principal object in Canada was to get some 

 moving pictures of moose, and I put in a good many 



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