THE DECREASE OF GAME BIRDS 17 
stirred by the insipid combination of nothing but 
water, weeds, and ripples? In such a place you feel 
keenly a want of harmony, only a part of the “ Each 
and All” is there, you encounter the painful desolation 
of a deserted home, and confess with a pang that 
you and your kindred, either by deed or by neglect, 
are responsible for this emptiness of nature. The wild 
creatures’ Eden is there. The birds have never sinned 
against God or man. Why have we banished them to 
the sub-Arctic wastes ? 
How interesting and truly romantic is a boat trip, 
when you may expect a deer coming out from the 
thicket to drink, when you know wild-cats and bears 
may be listening to your voice. How stale and tame 
the whole journey becomes, when a six-inch pickerel 
is the wildest creature you may expect to view. There 
you cannot help thinking that for every lover of nature 
this world is becoming a tiresome place. Is the time 
rapidly approaching when English sparrows, brown 
rats, and cottontails will be the biggest wild creatures 
in the country? We read in the Holy Book that 
“ God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, 
it was very good.” I fear that, unless the taste of 
Him Who is unchangeable has undergone a decided 
change, He must at this time be much disgusted with 
a large part of the earth He created. Man, whom He 
gave dominion over all, is indeed ruling the earth, but 
he is not ruling it like a wise, beneficent father ; he is 
ruling it like a greedy, despotic conqueror. 
It is high time that all lovers of nature wake up, 
Cc 
