CAMPING OUT. 803 



scarcely boast of any game in their wild lands east of the 

 prairies, are calling loudly for restocking their rivers arti- 

 ficially in the one case, and, in the other, have enacted 

 stringent laws to preserve the scanty remnant of their 

 deer and grouse. 



However inexpedient or impracticable it may have 

 been in the earlier history of the country to stem the 

 torrent of wasteful destruction which has swept over this 

 continent, there is no doubt that here, as in every other 

 part of the world, increasing civilisation would at length 

 call for protection of game. Game, both as a luxury and 

 as a means of recreation, is a necessary adjunct to the 

 establishment of a country tenanted by Anglo-Saxons. 

 Witness the anxiety with which our antipodal colonists 

 are watching their attempts to introduce deer, game 

 birds, and salmon into Australia, Tasmania, and New 

 Zealand ; and the eagerness with which the young sports- 

 men of the great cities of the States disperse themselves 

 throughout the land in search of recreation from the 

 prairies to the rivers of Labrador. This demand will 

 eventually in this country ensure protection. Nature's 

 great stock-farm, though nearly worn out by the reck- 

 lessness of the first-comers, will yet repay careful 

 husbandry; and where so large a portion, of British 

 North America especially, is destined for ever to remain 

 in a state of nature, it is the duty of the people to pre- 

 vent it from becoming an unprofitable, repulsive wilder- 

 ness ; and how much better to take vigorous measures to 

 preserve the remnant of the former stock than at length 

 be compelled to have recourse to the tedious process of 

 acclimatisation or of artificial propagation. 



It is perhaps within the last fifteen years that the most 



