LIFELESS DESOLATION IN NORTHWESTERN 

 CANADA AND ON THE PACIFIC COAST 



By Madison Grant, 



VICE-PRESIDENT N. Y. ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



The following terrible picture of the absence of wild life and 

 the wasteful destruction of forests carries its own tragic lesson 

 to every thinking American.— W. T. H. 



New York, Dec. 23, 1915. 

 Dear Dr. Hornaday: 



I have been reading Bulletin No. 1, of your Wild Life 

 Protection Fund, and am much interested in what you say 

 about the decline of wild life in the West. 



It may interest you to know that, in a recent trip of over 

 12,000 miles, including the most northerly railroad route 

 in Canada, my experience and observations were quite the 

 same as yours. 



Leaving New York on July 2, I went, via Toronto, to 

 a rather wild fishing region on the easterly shore of Geor- 

 gian Bay, spending several days in camp and fishing along 

 the rocky islets and shores. In this region I saw not one 

 living mammal larger than a squirrel, and I do not recall 

 seeing any game birds, or for that matter, small birds. 



From Toronto I went by the Canadian Pacific R. R. along 

 the north shore of Lake Superior to Winnipeg, and on the 

 Grand Trunk R. R., via Saskatoon, to Edmonton. This is 

 the most northerly line through the wheat country, and is 

 as wild as anything that can be seen from railroad win- 

 dows. During this portion of the trip I did not see one 

 living mammal of any description, except prairie dogs, and 

 few of them. There were some wild fowl on the small 

 ponds and sloughs, but their slender numbers were in sharp 

 contrast to those seen on my previous trips across the 

 plains. 



From Edmonton I went to Calgary, Lethbridge and Mac- 

 Leod, and then took a motor trip of several days across 

 the prairies, much of the time on mere cattle trails, coming, 

 at this point, within a few miles of the international boun- 

 dary north of the Sweet Grass Hills. 



