1912 AND FISHERIES COMMISSION. 165 



the reserves were better knoAvn, a considerably greater number of citi- 

 zens and visitors would visit them annually, and as these reserves are 

 in one sense public parks, retained for that purpose, it would seem ad- 

 visable that full information concerning them should be available to the 

 public. The work, therefore, in this direction of such an official as sug- 

 gested would be most useful. 



As the number of visitors to the reserves increases there will almost 

 inevitably arise a demand for guides to conduct parties through them, 

 and, as in the case of the Algonquin National Park, a supply of guides 

 will appear to meet the demand. The fire rangers in a reserve and for 

 the matter of that the fire rangers throughout the forests can be expected 

 to be particularly careful in the matter of starting forest fires, and, in- 

 deed, the penalties for the slightest carelessness on their part in this 

 direction should be most severe, but in the reserves, at least, it should 

 be enacted not only that the licensed guide is responsible for every pre- 

 caution being taken by his party, but also that any carelessness on his 

 part in this respect, which is detected, will be visited by the immediate 

 cancellation of his license, no matter where he may be or how incon- 

 venient the same may prove to his party, and that the cancellation of a 

 license on these grounds will bar the licensee from ever obtaining an- 

 other one. Camp fires left unextinguished are a most fruitful source of 

 danger, and yet, although this is a well-known fact and the offence is 

 altogether inexcusable, it all too frequently happens that fires are not 

 properly put out before a camping ground is abandoned. The tourist, 

 also, is prone to be light-hearted in the woods and inconsiderate of the 

 dangers of fire, and this spirit of levity is apt on occasions to communi- 

 cate itself to the guides. It should, therefore, in all cases be most clearly 

 impressed on the guides that any remissness on their part will not be 

 tolerated, but will be punished by the full penalties, and that it is a 

 chief feature of their duties to warn the persons hy whom they are 

 engaged against recklessness in this matter and rigidly to check any 

 tendency to, or display of, carelessness in this respect. 



The general carrying of firearms in the reserves may, it appears, 

 shortly be forbidden, and from the reports recently published in the pub- 

 lic press it would appear that in the future this same wise provision will 

 be made applicable to rangers also. An idea would seem to be prevalent 

 amongst the public that a firearm is an indispensable part of the equip- 

 ment necessary for a stay in the wilds as a protection against the wolf. 

 In most of the provincial resei-ves no doubt wolves do exist, and this is 

 naturally to be expected, for all wild creatures, such as the deer, will 

 quickly discover regions where they are afforded even comparative im- 

 munity against the hunter, and where the deer congregate, there 

 also, will appear the wolf. The presence of w^olves in the reserves is to 

 be regretted on account of the numbers of deer which they destroy, but, 

 although their voracity and destructiveness in regard to deer is stupen- 

 dous, it cannot be claimed for the Ontario wolves either that they are 



