THE UNIQUE ISLAND OF MOUNT DESERT 



79 



mentions particularly "the great plentie 

 of foules." Rozier, in his narrative of 

 Weymouth's voyage to the Maine coast 

 in 1605, speaks of "many fowls of divers 

 kinds" as breeding upon the islands. He 

 mentions particularly eagles, hernshaws 

 (herons), cranes, ducks, great geese, 

 swans and penguins (great auks), crows, 

 shrikes, ravens, mews, turtle doves (pas- 

 senger pigeons), and "many other fowls 

 in flocks unknown," and speaks of cranes 

 especially as breeding on these islands. 

 Levett again, in his "Voyage to New 

 England," 1623, speaks of "a world of 

 fowl" along the coast. 



This coastal region is indeed wonder- 

 fully fitted to be a great nesting ground 

 and feeding place for both land and 

 water birds. 



The coast-line is so broken with deep, 

 irregular indentations and the islands ly- 

 ing off it are so numerous that from 

 Casco Bay to the Canadian boundary it 

 presents to the wash of the tides more 

 than 2,500 miles of shore. All along the 

 coast there are broad flats and salt^ 

 marshes extending deeply inland which 

 are swept over twice a day by the tide's 

 great flood, rising from 12 to 13 feet in 

 the Mt. Desert region ; and every recur- 

 ring tide for ages past has brought and 

 deposited upon these flats and marshes 

 quantities of floating marine life, while 

 countless animal and vegetable forms 

 grow upon and in their fertile bottoms. 



In the early days, when every tide went 

 out, great multitudes of birds of many 

 species found a bounteous repast spread 

 for them along that vast stretch of coast. 

 Yet, although food conditions for them 

 are almost as favorable; today as they 

 were when Champlain first, explored these 

 shores, only a pitiable remnant of the 

 birds remains. 



MANY have; UTTERI.Y DISAPPEARED, BUT 



MANY MAY STlEIv BE PRESERVED 



BY PROMPT MEASURES 



The continual hunting and shooting of 

 birds throughout the Atlantic States and 

 the maritime provinces, with the destruc- 

 tion of their nests, eggs, and young for 

 food and commercial purposes, has swept 

 the coast like a destructive storm, an- 

 nihilating far the greater part of the bird 



life that formerly existed there. The 

 multitude of swans, snow geese, great 

 auks, wild turkeys, and wild pigeons that 

 were seen by the earlier explorers are 

 gone, and with them are also gone the 

 Labrador ducks, cranes, spruce par- 

 tridges, ravens, and eskimo curlew, while 

 many other shore birds and water fowl 

 have become rare almost to disappear- 

 ance, although prompt measures still 

 would bring them back. 



The Maine coast is not alone in this,, 

 for recent explorers tell us that north- 

 ward along the unprotected coasts of 

 Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Labra- 

 dor the nesting wild fowl and shore birds 

 are disappearing so fast that now the 

 eastern coast of Maine, where occasional 

 island colonies of these birds have been, 

 given some protection by the National 

 Association of Audubon Societies, offers 

 the best opportunity existing for saving 

 from destruction the typical water birds 

 which once bred so abundantly along the 

 whole northeastern coast of North Amer- 

 ica. 



It now seems as though the tide were 

 turning and that the destructive evils of 

 the past may at last be stayed. The re- 

 cent action of Congress in enacting a 

 national law for the protection of mi- 

 gratory birds gives encouragement to the 

 hope that it may yet be possible to foster 

 and gradually bring back to some meas- 

 ure of the old abundance and variety the 

 valuable — and, once lost, irreplaceable — 

 wild bird-life of this continent. But the 

 enactment of laws alone will not secure 

 results. 



All who speak with knowledge now 

 agree that no plan for the preservation 

 of birds in any country can succeed un- 

 less adequate and well-placed bird refuges 

 and absolute sanctuaries are provided, 

 where all shooting or disturbance of the 

 birds is prohibited, where the birds that 

 breed locally can nest in safety, and where 

 migratory birds of the farther north can 

 find shelter, protection, and food in their 

 migrations. Every year's delay counts, 

 heavily against the birds. 



Over 900 million shot-gun cartridges 

 are sold in the United States each year 

 and more than 100 million in Canada. 

 Great numbers of muzzle-loading guns 



