1912 AND FISHERIES COMMISSION. 233 



The moose, which is closeh' allied to the European elk, is held to 

 be naturally adapted to domestication. Instances have occurred where 

 the animals have been trained to draw a sleigh, and at one time it would 

 appear that the elk was fully domesticated in northern Scandinavia, and 

 in general use to carry couriers from one place to another. The elk, it 

 is stated, was swifter than the reindeer, and in certain instances covered 

 over 230 miles in a single day, and it is further alleged that the use of 

 the elk was finally forbidden in this region owing to the facilities it 

 afforded to prisoners and criminals to escape, and its domestication con- 

 sequently abandoned. Moose-hide is 'so thick and hard that the leather 

 is said to have been known to have resisted musket balls. 



No attempts have as yet been made to domesticate the caribou or 

 Canadian reindeer, although these animals differ but little from the Old 

 World species. Some authoritieK are of the opinion that both the wood- 

 land and barren ground caribou are capable of domestication, and it is 

 evident that such a step would be of material benefit in the extreme 

 northerly sections of the Province. In any case, even where reindeer are 

 imported, as has occurred in some instances on this continent, crossing 

 the European species with the indigenous and wild variety would doubt- 

 less be found to produce animals of greater strength and size, and the 

 native caribou could be constantly drawn on for new blood as has often 

 been done in the case of wild reindeer in northern Europe and Siberia. 



The game farm affords a means of producing annually and com- 

 paratively cheaply a quantity of birds and eggs of indigenous or im- 

 ported varieties. Undoubtedly the indigenous varieties, as a rule, will 

 be found to be the best adapted to the purposes of farming, for already 

 they will be acclimatized and the food most suited to them will be found 

 existing naturally to some extent on the farm, while in addition to these 

 advantages there will be a readier market for the sale of the eggs and 

 birds for sporting purposes, for there will be less risk attending their 

 plantation. In the United States considerable attention has been paid 

 of late to the farming of game birds, the greatest efforts having 

 apparently been put forth in the direction of imported varieties, such as 

 the pheasant and the Hungarian partridge. While these experiments 

 have not in many instances been an unqualified success, the fact that 

 many states and individuals are still conducting them on an increasing 

 scale would serve to indicate that the enterprise has taken firm root and 

 can be expected materially to develop in the future. In New York State, 

 for instance, a sum of |12,000 was recently devoted to the purchase of a 

 game farm, the erection of a suitable plant and the acquisition of a suit- 

 able number of birds for stock purposes. Seventy-five acres of this farm 

 have been fenced with woven wire eight feet high and pens built therein. 

 The birds principally dealt with are the pheasant and Hungarian part- 

 ridge, and it is estimated that the state should be able to supply six 

 thousand or more birds and a thousand eggs each year for propagating 

 and stocking purposes. 



