VALUE OF WILD LIFE TO THE NATION 13 



they were careful not to exterminate in any area the fur- 

 bearing or game animals. This policy continued until the 

 advent of the independent fur trader — the ''free trader" 

 and hunter — who observed no law and whose whole aim 

 was to secure the greatest quantity of furs by the quickest 

 method regardless of the future. The effect of men of this 

 type on the attitude of the Indian towards wild life was 

 what one might expect, but we cannot hold the latter en- 

 tirely responsible for his abandonment of his former habits. 

 The Indian will conserve wild life if he believes that it is 

 to his advantage to do so. He is not so ''red in tooth and 

 claw" as many of those who are frequently accustomed to 

 ^speak ill of him. His primitive weapons were playthings 

 liompared with the modern sporting rifles. The wild life 

 'constituted his natural means of subsistence and, with the 

 advent of the trading companies, of revenue. In his primi- 

 tive state he was merely a unit in that balance of nature 

 that is so marvellously adjusted that while the abundance 

 of species of animals rises and falls extermination does not 

 follow the preying of one species of animal upon another. 

 For such changes as have been brought about in the Indian's 

 attitude he is not to blame, and the foregoing facts are set 

 forth with a view to removing prejudice in the minds of 

 those who have not seriously considered the rights of the 

 Indians in this matter. Our obligations to them in those 

 areas where tribes still exist who have always lived on the 

 wild life that still constitutes a means of subsistence, cannot 

 be overlooked or neglected in developing those regions. 



Recreative Value of Wild Life. — When we come to con- 

 sider the recreative value of our wild life we touch an aspect 

 of wild-life conservation that is as universal in its appeal 

 to the sentiments of Canadians as it is inestimable in its 

 value to the nation. Few men there are who never feel 

 or respond to the call of the open air, the lure of the wild; 

 and to all those who cast aside the daily task and seek re- 



