THIRD BIENNIAL STATEMENT 149 



LAWS MADE TO COVER WORST CONDITIONS 



Now, in the making of laws, it is always necessary to 

 make the laws adequate to curb the worst elements. No 

 sooner is a new game law enacted than the human vultures 

 who prey upon wild life immediately scrutinize it and study 

 it in order to find its weak spots, and to plan evasions. 

 It is this devilish spirit of criminality that renders it so 

 difficult to provide for the utmost utilization of wild game 

 as food for man. Whenever we see the day wherein all 

 men will gladly obey the spirit of a law, as well as its stern 

 letter, then may we say that the millenium of game pro- 

 tection has arrived. 



The continuous development of the interior regions of 

 Alaska and northern Canada, the increase in power trans- 

 portation, of mining and of general exploitation, has brought 

 a corresponding increase of pressure on the remainders of 

 big game. The valleys of a very few navigable streams 

 now contain any considerable remainder of moose, caribou, 

 mountain sheep or bear. To find big game now it is neces- 

 sary to strike into the interior. The great herds of caribou 

 that only forty years ago came within gunshot of St. 

 Michaels, Alaska, at the mouth of the Yukon, have vanished 

 from the lower Yukon almost as completely as if they never 

 had known that region. Now T the residents of St. Michaels 

 must travel hundreds of miles to find the nearest herds 

 of the caribou millions. 



DISAPPEARANCE OF NORTHERN BIG GAME 



But the disappearance of northern big game is a large 

 subject, and not to be entered upon here. We are concerned 

 with the rational utilization of the stock that remains. The 

 practical questions now before the people of Canada and 

 Alaska are as follows: 



(1) How can we secure the most thorough legitimate 

 utilization of wild game? 



