174 WILD LIFE PROTECTION FUND 



person who knew Senator Turner and the members of his 

 family, and I was able to present the matter with a map of 

 the Islands which I had prepared for the purpose and suc- 

 ceeded in getting his unconditional assent to the proposal 

 and indeed, his enthusiastic espousal of it. Everthing then 

 seemed cleared out of the way when Senator Turner died 

 and the matter was passed on to his heirs. This complicated 

 the situation as the heirs were scattered. The members of 

 the family living in Quebec were however approached and 

 found to be cordial in making the proposed concessions. In 

 spite of this effective work on the part of the citizen of 

 Quebec to whom I am vaguely referring, it was taking too 

 long a time to realize the end sought. 



On one occasion while actively concerned at Perce in these 

 preliminary matters, I had the pleasure of getting the 

 Honorable Honore Mercier, Minister of Fisheries of the 

 Province of Quebec, into close and intimate touch with the 

 situation on the ground. After the death of Senator Turner 

 and the obvious breakdown or delay in the operations being 

 carried on by the Commission of Conservation, the entire 

 problem was taken up as one of Provincial concern exclu- 

 sively. The same effective citizen who was successful in 

 gaining the interest of the Turners was also intimately ac- 

 quainted with Mr. E. T. D. Chambers. I am not informed 

 that this influence was in this case specially exerted upon 

 Mr. Chambers for the end in view. I think very likely 

 that Mr. Chambers and his Chief, Mr. Mercier, worked out 

 the problem by their own first intention. At any rate, 

 Mr. Chambers drew the bill which has been enacted into a 

 law and Mr. Mercier saw that it was so enacted. The pro- 

 visions of the law, as far as the Islands are concerned, are 

 those which were outlined by me and for which I was work- 

 ing with the support of the Commission of Conservation. 



There is the story, rather a longer one than I meant to 

 tell. I have given the sequence of the facts as I know them. 

 In a forthcoming number of "Natural History" I have writ- 

 ten of these places and told a part of the story as succinctly 



