112 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE 



hunter from the United States had five grizzly bears to his 

 credit. Comment on such butchery disguised under the 

 name of "sport" is hardly necessary, but it indicates the 

 abuse on the part of unscrupulous persons that is liable to 

 accompany the absence of any restriction. Bears will prob- 

 ably hold their own in our mountains and forests for many 

 years to come, even without protection, owing to their dis- 

 like for man and the sparse population in or near their 

 haunts. But there are a number of adverse natural factors 

 that tend to reduce their range, of which, perhaps, the chief 

 is forest fires; and it is with a view to counterbalancing the 

 effect of such factors and the gradual diminution of their 

 range by the increase of settlement and population that 

 some form of protection should be granted this interesting 

 and economically valuable group of our wild life while such 

 protection will have the desired effect. 



