PROTECTION OF GAME AND WILD LIFE 263 



is administered by the Commissioner of the Yukon. Its 

 enforcement is largely in the hands of the members of the 

 Royal Northwest Mounted Pohce,* who are ex offixdo game 

 wardens. The close seasons may be changed by a resolu- 

 tion of the Territorial Council. 



The ordinance prohibits the use of poison. In order to 

 prevent waste of meat a heavy penalty is provided should 

 anyone, kilhng game, fail to use the meat personally for 

 food, or cause it to be used for food, or to be sold within 

 the territory for that purpose. Traders who purchase meat 

 of game animals are required to keep full data regarding 

 their purchases. 



Owing to the great difficulty of taking supplies into cer- 

 tain sections of the temtory, the Commissioner may set 

 aside any portion of it from the operation of the ordinance 

 for such period of time as he may deem desirable, in order 

 to provide sustenance for isolated camps, and when any 

 locality is so set aside the Commissioner may license one or 

 more hunters to hunt for such district under certain re- 

 strictions. One of the chief reasons for the disappearance 

 of game from many regions has been the fact that mining 

 and other camps have subsisted wholly, or almost wholly, 

 on the game in the surrounding district. This policy has 

 been carried out in regions where the bringing in of other 

 supphes is possible. The power of suspending the opera- 

 tion of the game law in exceptional cases is one that should 

 be exercised with the greatest caution, and its abuse should 

 be safeguarded by every possible means. 



The killing of game by Indians in the Yukon, particularly 

 moose, for the purposes of sale to traders, is a practice that 

 should be suppressed immediately. It is unwarranted; it 

 incites a class of men, all too eager to kill everything in 

 sight, to kill to the limit; and its continuance will abso- 

 lutely deplete the supply of moose and other game animals, 



* Now the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, 



