WITH FLASH-LIGHT AND RIFLE 



evidences of this destructive progress are, unfortunate- 

 ly, sufficiently numerous. Brief mention only need to 

 be made of the North American Indian and of many 

 Polynesian tribes. 



For centuries man has waged a war of extermination 

 against the fur-bearing and the oil-yielding animals of 

 the polar regions. Very successful in this respect has 

 been the activity of the Hudson Bay Company in the 

 Arctic belt of North America. The fur of a sea-otter 

 brings, to-day, a snug sum of money, and, for many 

 years past, it has been impossible for museums of nat- 

 ural history to secure perfect specimens of this animal. 



The time is not far off when the story may be written 

 of the "last of the whales," the biggest of the existing 

 mammals. Although hunted for centuries, these oil- 

 yielding animals have succeeded in escaping total de- 

 struction by retreating into the ice-bound polar sea. 

 But since the harpoon has been superseded by the 

 cannon and the rifle, and the single, daring whaling 

 expedition has expanded into a scientifically prepared 

 and strategically carried -out campaign by companies 

 of capitalists, the death-knell of the whale, the giant 

 animal which is a fish only in form, has been sounded. 



The time is not far off. How far off? It may be 

 centuries. But what do a few centuries amount to, 

 compared with the aeons it must have taken nature to 

 develop these giants of the sea to their present perfec- 

 tion! Still numerous "schools" of whales are roving 



4 



