304 FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



startling decrease has taken place, both in the salmon 

 fisheries and game of British North America, and has 

 engaged the attention of the various colonial govern- 

 ments. Laws to protect the wild animals at certain times 

 called close seasons, and stringent regulations to ensure 

 fair play to the salmon, have been passed throughout our 

 Atlantic colonies within this period. As regards legisla- 

 tion, nothing seems neglected, and still the game and fish 

 are decreasing as heretofore. We, at least in these pro- 

 vinces, never hear of cases of game-law breakers in the 

 police reports, yet, granted that the law is sufficient to 

 protect, it must be through its violation that the evil is 

 not checked. The constant cause of this we all know to 

 be the defectiveness of administration, and in this part of 

 the world, where there is no such thing as poaching upon 

 private property, which in England would lead to pro- 

 secution through the injured rights of an individual, we 

 do not wonder at it. In the old country the game is 

 private property, to protect which the game-laws are 

 framed ; whilst in the protection of the salmon there are 

 mixed interests — the great value of the fisheries to the 

 country, the netting interests at the mouths, and those 

 of the proprietors of the inland fisheries on the rivers 

 passing through their estates or rented. Consequently 

 any violation of either game or fishery law is there 

 directly injurious to a proprietor, and so meets with quick 

 justice. 



In Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, or Canada, on the 

 other hand, the wild denizens of the forests, commonly 

 called game, are public property, or rather the property 

 of the country. No private rights are infringed by moose 

 hunting or partridge shooting in any part of the country 



