566 



NA JURE 



[April 12. 1900 



PROGRESS IN NORTH-WESTERN AMERICA} 



TTHIS book, excellent of its kind, is primarily intended 

 ^ for the sportsman, though possessing also a wider 

 interest. Two-thirds of its contents and the majority of 

 Its illustrations are devoted to the description of those 

 forms of the animal life of Western America which men 

 most eagerly kill for pleasure or profit. The wapiti, the 

 *'antelope-goat,"the moose, caribou and deer, the bighorn, 

 the prong-buck,the bears and the bison, are all in turn dis- 

 cussed, generally with vivid personal reminiscences of 

 their pursuit and slaughter amid their natural surround- 

 ings. Interesting chapters are also written on the seal 

 and other fur-bearing animals of the Pacific Coast, and 

 on the salmon of the British Columbian rivers ; and four 

 of the later chapters of the book (pp. 225-315) contain 

 an account of the author's experiences as a pioneer in 

 the Kootenay district of British Columbia. In the open- 

 ing up of this district Mr. Baillie-Grohman played a 



indigenous animals that the destructive propensities of 

 these modern times have fallen with direst effect, driving 

 harmful and harmless species alike towards the irre- 

 vocable doom of extinction. 



Even while we may acknowledge that the past history 

 of life on the earth is one long record of extinction of 

 life-forms, and that the spread of mankind must almost 

 inevitably bring about the destruction of all the larger 

 animals not directly serviceable to him, the process is 

 none the less grievous to contemplate, especially when, 

 as in this case, it is carried on wantonly and inexcusably 

 in advance of the needs of the community. 



Like many another sportsman, Mr, Baillie-Grohman 

 laments the havoc wrought by others, while indirectly 

 taking credit to himself for his own moderation and 

 "scientific" methods. But in reading his book we fail 

 to find cause for exonerating him from the stigma of 

 having aided in the unnecessary slaughter of some of the 

 most characteristic, most beautiful and most harmless 



Fig. 



-Fur Seal Rookery on the PrybiloflF Islands. 



conspicuous part, and in view of the rapid development 

 which It has undergone during the last ten years, some 

 permanent historic interest will no doubt attach to this 

 account. 



The reckless waste which has accompanied the inrush 

 of civilised man upon the wild lands of Western America 

 njust have struck every observant traveller. The prairies 

 robbed in a few years of their slowly accumulated fer- 

 tility ; the grazing lands of the dry region overstocked 

 and ruined ; the ancient forests among the mountains 

 destroyed wholesale by fire ; the mineral deposits hastily 

 and carelessly ransacked — in every quarter is shown the 

 same hurry to grasp an immediate advantage without 

 the slightest regard for the future. But it is upon the 



1 " Fifteen Years' Sport and Life in the Hunting Grounds of Western 

 America and British Columbia." By W. A. Baillie-Grohman ; with a 

 chapter by Mrs. Baillie-Grohman. Illustrated by 77 photographs, including 

 the best trophies of North American Big Game killed by English and 

 American Sportsmen, &c. Pp. 403. 8vo. (London : Horace Cox, 1899.) 



NO. T589, VOL. 61] 



f animals of the continent. It is true that to some extent 

 he selected his game, and did not kill indiscriminately : 

 but in reading his pages we are impressed again and 

 \ again with the lack of any adequate reason for the great 

 1 aggregate destruction he chronicles. He remarks : — 

 " Trophies of the chase can be regarded from two dif- 

 erent points of view— /.^. from that of the naturalist, as 

 more or less valuable contributions to our knowledge of 

 natural history ; and, secondly, from a purely sporting 

 point of view. To the scientific investigator desirous of 

 establishing the length, the widest spread or the greatest 

 circumference of the 'largest on record' of some parti- 

 cular species, it is naturally a matter of indifference who 

 killed the bearer of the trophy deserving that distinction. 

 To the sportsman, on the other hand, v.'ho disdains to 

 adorn his walls with spoils that he has not obtained 

 himself, it is a matter of interest what other fellow 

 sportsmen have shot, while the fact that some skin hunter 



