1912 AND FISHERIES COMMISSION. 217 



with his claim the number of his licen'se, the possibility of fraud in this 

 connection would be very greatly diminished, for it would be practically 

 impossible for anj one not so licensed to kill any number of wolves, for 

 poiHoning, the only effective method, would be illegal for such person, 

 while, again, the license nuimber would indicate the exact area in which 

 a wolf or wolves had been taken by poison by the trapper and any ex- 

 cessive number of claims under such circumstances would be easil}^ de- 

 tected. It might, however, be advisable to require of all trappers mak- 

 ing use of poison to burn the carcasses of all creatures destroyed there- 

 by, in order to reduce the chances of death to other animals through 

 devouring them to a minimum. 



At the present time a bounty of |15 is offered by the government 

 for the destruction of a wolf; the claimant to the bounty being required 

 to furnish the ears of the animal in proof of its destruction. Unfortu- 

 nately, cases have occurred of late where extensive frauds have been 

 perpetrated on the government in this connection, large quantities of 

 wolf ears having been imported from without the Province and bounties 

 claimed and paid for animals which had never been within miles of the 

 provincial borders. The detection and severe punishment of offences of 

 this nature in the western portions of the Province Avill undoubtedly 

 have had a beneficial effect in the direction of preventing their recur- 

 rence, but it is to be observed that so long as the ears only are required 

 by the Government in substantiation of a claim, ®o long will it be com- 

 paratively easy to perpetrate the fraud. The time, patience and good 

 fortune necessary to secure a wolf militate largely against very active 

 prosecution of its pursuit by those engaged in ordinary trapping opera- 

 tions. The skin of the wolf, undamaged, is worth in the neigihborhood 

 of $5.00. It would seem, therefore, in the best interests of the Province 

 that a more substantial bounty should be offered the trapper for the 

 destruction of wolves, and that if the bounty were raised to, say, |25 and 

 the whole «kin required by the Government in support of a claim, noi 

 only would a considerably greater number of wolves annually be taken, 

 but that the chances of fraud in this connection would be materially 

 diminished. Moreover, the skins would retain their full value, instead 

 of being mutilated and thius depreciated, and consequently not only 

 would less of these pelts be wasted, but by selling them the Government 

 would in some measure, at least, be recouped for the additional bounty. 

 Undoubtedly special steps should be taken to reduce the numbers of 

 wolves in the Provincial Forest Reserves to a minimum, and where a 

 permanent staff of rangers is maintained, it would appear that there 

 sliould be no difficulty in so doing, if the matter is taken energetically 

 in hand. 



Recommendations. 



Your Commissioner would, therefore, recommend : — 



(1) That the beaver be declared a. perquisite of the Crown through- 



