HINTS ON TAXIDERMY, ETC 415 



More than all the pleasures which the rich man feels as he 

 surveys his Murillos or his Raphaels are the hunter's, as his 

 eyes wander over his antlered walls. He shot the beasts whose 

 spoils are round him, and in the doing of it scenes were graven 

 on his memory which can never be effaced ; mental and 

 physical qualities which, but for these silent witnesses. Age 

 the doubter would persuade him that he never possessed, were 

 tried and not found wanting. 



But what can bought heads be to the buyer ? Furniture 

 for his rooms perhaps, and, even so, misleading ; for if a house 

 is to be worth anything, it should represent the tastes and life 

 of the man who lives in it. As a rule, it is long odds that 

 the owners of bought trophies cannot so much as remember the 

 shape of the beasts whose horns they hang up, much less have 

 they any associations connected with them. At the best, they 

 are but costly rubbish ; unfortunately they are worse than that. 

 The demand for antlers and sheep's horns insures a supply 

 being secured in some way, and so it happens that in Canada 

 to-day every up-country trader has been supplied with a printed 

 list of the prices which will be paid for trophies, according to 

 the number of inches they measure round the base or the length 

 and span of the antlers. 



In one trader's house which I know there are nearly a 

 hundred magnificent sheep's heads waiting for a purchaser, most 

 of which have been brought in by Stony Indians, whom no law- 

 can touch for shooting in season or out of season. 



The damage done by this head-hunting is twofold : first, to 

 the sportsman, whom it will eventually deprive of his game ; 

 secondly, to the country, as tending to rob it of the attractions 

 which it possesses for a class which brings a great deal of money 

 into it. A fair sheep's head may be bought for twenty-five 

 dollars, but many a hundred pounds of good English money 

 has before now been distributed amongst the natives and traders 

 of British Columbia in the attempt to obtain such a head by fair 

 shooting. No doubt efforts have been made by the legislature 

 to protect the game ; but in those countries to which I have 



