54 THE SOCIETY FOR THE PRESERVATION OP 



All down the line of the Dominion and Atlantic Railway, from 

 Yarmouth to Windsor Junction, almost every town and village 

 had one or more moose to its credit. These moose were not killed 

 by wealthy sportsmen who could devote unlimited time and money 

 to the chase. Most of them fell victims to the rifles of mechanics, 

 clerks, or farmers, who spent a few dollars and a few days in 

 the pursuit of the noblest game in North America, and made their 

 kill in a gentlemanlike and sportsmanlike manner. 



Under the old regime, when the ' rope ' was paramount in the 

 fall, and the moose-dog devastated the yards in the spring, such a 

 successful season would have been out of the question. Instead 

 of the kill being divided among a number of people (who incidentally 

 disbursed cash enough among their guides to pay for the meat at far 

 more than its market value) , the killing would have been done by a 

 number of unprincipled scamps, who were too lazy to work at any 

 legitimate business. The best of the meat would have been peddled 

 round the towns, and the forequarters left to rot in the woods. 



Of course, much of the meat killed this season has been sold. 

 Personally I do not believe in the sale of game, but I cannot blame 

 a man who finds himself in possession of four or five hundred 

 pounds of venison for selling enough of it to recoup him for the 

 expenses of getting the meat out of the w^oods. 



The lawful hunting season has been curtailed. Dogging is a 

 thing of the past, and snaring is falling into disrepute. The modern 

 rifle has not, in my opinion, worked the same slaughter the old 

 smooth-bore or musket did when ' close season ' was a byword 

 and the moose-dog was one of the common objects of the country. 

 I remember when moose were practically extinct in King's County. 

 To-day there are moose within ten miles of the shire town. The 

 same remark applies to other districts. The agents of the Game 

 Society deserve a certain amount of credit for this ; the people of 

 the country have achieved the rest. With the renaissance of hunt- 

 ing as a national pastime, the condemnation of butchery and pot- 

 hunting has followed as a natural sequence. 



While the moose have increased, cariboo are all but extinct. 

 I remember seeing over fifty cariboo in one drove, near Lake 

 Paul, King's County, when I was a boy. To-day the cariboo of 

 Nova Scotia may be said to consist of a few scattered droves. I 

 believe that a few still exist in the region round Lake Rossignol and 

 the * Boundary Rock. ' They are still fairly numerous in parts 

 of King's and Annapolis Counties, and they are not yet extinct 

 on the headwaters of Liscombe and St. Mary's Rivers, in the 

 eastern part of the Province. They certainly have not been killed 

 and sent to market. The timber- wolf , their worst enemy, is extinct 

 in Nova Scotia; the wild-cat and the bear are less numerous now 

 than they were in the days the cariboo frequented the bogs in 

 hundreds. I am inclined to believe that some unknown disease is 

 responsible for this. 



