1912 AND FISHERIES COMMISSION. 145 



profitable commercial enterprise. It can be appreciated, then, what a 

 calamity it will be to the Province if this magnificently wooded area is 

 burnt and destroyed as have been other territories through which rail- 

 Avays pass, by the very agency, in fact, employed to throw open their 

 resources. Even tliough the cost be high, measures Should plainly be 

 taken to prevent any such eventuality, and it would seem but reason- 

 able that in all cases the railwa;^^ themselves should bear the main share 

 of the burden, no matter what measures it may be deemed necessary to 

 enact. 



It is impossible to determine the value of the game inhabiting the 

 forests of the Province, and it is impracticable, also, to determine accu- 

 rately the loss in game sustained through any particular forest fire. 

 Such evidence as there is to be had on the subject, however, would 

 seem to point to the fact that it is considerable, doubtless, indeed, 

 increasing in proportion to the extent of the fire and the velocity of its 

 spread. All living creatures become alarmed at the approach of fire, 

 and although the natural tendency is to escape from it by running or 

 flying away in the opposite direction to which it is approaching, fear 

 and smoke would appear to combine to confuse the wild creatures very 

 much as they frequently do mankind under similar conditions, with 

 the result that sooner or later, still fresh and untired, or else exhausted 

 in their efforts to flee, they turn and rush into the very peril they are 

 seeking to avoid and are destroyed. Birds and small animals, which 

 have more or less fixed locations, probably suffer to greater extent than 

 the larger animals such as the moose, caribou and deer, whose ranges 

 are usually more considerable, but there would seem to be little doubt 

 but that even these perish in numbers when the fire covers a consider- 

 able extent of territory and sweeps forward with inconceivable rapidity 

 under the fanning of a high wind. 



Great areas of forest land have been set aside by the administra- 

 tions of the Province as public reserves or parks, to act amongst other 

 considerations as a haven for wild creatures where they may breed and 

 multiply in security, but the forest fire disregards imaginary boundaries 

 in its advance and will as greedily devour a provincial forest or game 

 reserve as any other section of the forest area, whether it starts from 

 outside the reserve or within its borders. Small avail is it to afford 

 the wild creatures security against man's depredations if they are to 

 be driven from their haven by a forest fire or to perish in its flames. 

 Indeed, all the main objectives sought to be obtained through the setting 

 aside of these forest areas as reserves must fail to materialize where 

 the forest fire has passed or raged unchecked. It is evident, therefore, 

 that if it be wise to maintain these parks, and on this score there can 

 be no two opinions, it must not only be the part of wisdom, but actually, 

 indeed, imperative, to furnish them with a staff sufficiently well equip- 

 ped to be able successfully to cope with any fires that may approach 

 from outside or originate within them. 



