86 BEPORT OF THE No. 3 



sent here by the Russian government to study our methods of game protection and 

 the management of game and forest preserves. As soon as war was declared most 

 of the visitors were called home, and even here in the heart of our Canadian 

 woods its blasting effect was felt. Orders for live animals, of which we have had 

 a number, were all cancelled, and owing to the general depression and the fall 

 in the price of furs it was decided not to take any pelts this winter. This, of 

 course, very materially lessens the income from the Park, yet notwithstanding 

 these facts we collected for fishing licenses, $1,249.00; Live Animals, $1,112.50; 

 Rents, $270.00; Furs, $300.00; Cedar Timber, $679.90; Fines, $20.00; making 

 a total of $3,629.40. The cedar sold was to the Grand Trunk Railway for the 

 construction of their summer camps on Big Island lake, which were completed 

 in time for the summer's trade. This camp can comfortably take care of a 

 hundred guests and while the cottages are most homelike they have every con- 

 venience, the sanitary arrangements are the best, and the entire camp is lighted 

 with gas. 



We seem to have fewer anglers and more who come for the sake of the life 

 in the woods and the health to both body and mind to be derived from such a life. 

 I feel that the Park is doing a good work as an educator of our people who are 

 learning to enjoy a visit with the wood folk in their natural haunts more than 

 the destruction of them. Fur-bearing animals have become very abundant, es- 

 pecially beaver and otter. Deer are plentiful and can be seen by all visitors with 

 little trouble; in fact so tame have they become that they feed on the terraces in 

 front of the. hotel, and some good photographs have been taken of them there. 



It is now recognized that owing to the increased demand and the steady en- 

 croachments which civilization is making on the waste places of the world in- 

 habited by fur-bearing animals, a large part of the fur supply of the future must 

 necessarily be got from animals bred in captivity or under control. Fur-farming 

 is rapidly coming into favor, and the astonishing development of the black fox 

 industry in Prince Edward Island has shown it to be capable of yielding large 

 profits. The Department has thought proper to give Ontario fur-farmers an op- 

 portunity of obtaining such fur-bearing animals as are found in Algonquin Park 

 in order to stock their ranches. These include beaver, mink, marten, fisher, otter, 

 etc., but principally the first three. Special appliances have been devised for 

 capturing the animals without injury or mutilation. The live animals sell for 

 considerably higher prices than do the furs, since their capture and care involves 

 not a little trouble and expense. Nevertheless, a fair revenue can be derived to 

 offset the cost of administering the Park, and at the same time run no risk 

 whatever of depleting the supply of fur animals. 



A large cement building has been erected at headquarters to take care of lire 

 animals. It is 22 x 42 feet, all of cement with iron roof and iron partitions, and is 

 supplied with running water and lit with gas, the work being done by our own men. 

 The object of this is to keep the animals after capture till they become accus- 

 tomed to being handled and fed before shipment, and to afford the hundreds of 

 visitors to the Park an opportunity of studying the different animals. During the 

 winter we hope to fill the pens with mink and^ marten, mostly the latter, and we 

 hope next summer to have raised a number of young for shipment. The old animals 

 will also be shipped to make room for others. 



Complying with your instructions the wharf petitioned for by the campers 

 was built and proved a great convenience. It is a floating wharf, built of sided 

 cedar, and covered with two-inch plank. 



