PROHIBITION OF THE SALE OF GAME 97 



mind that these remote districts are fast ceasing to be remote. Perhaps 

 you will say that this relates to the United States, that Canada is in a 

 better state than that. Well, happily your conditions are very much bet- 

 ter than in the United States, but the difference is only one of degree. 

 You have great areas that have not yet been brought under development 

 and exploitation. But they are being developed. In those newly devel- 

 oped regions you are going through the same experience that we had in 

 the United States and the result will inevitably be the same, unless you 

 take steps to preserve your wild life. Travel by the Canadian Pacific 

 railway from the Atlantic to the Pacific. See how much is left of the 

 former forest belt that is really fit to be inhabited by wild animals. 

 How many meose and caribou and other specimens of wild game will 

 you find in that area? The question brings its own reply. Now you 

 have the National Transcontinental and Canadian Northern lines just 

 opened up. Last year the regions they run through were remote; 

 they are no longer remote to-day. The Pullman car has brought them 

 to your door. You have a railway now to the Peace river. Next year 

 there will be another railway through to McMurray, connecting with 

 the steamboats plying on the lower Athabaska, Slave and Mackenzie 

 rivers, and the whole Mackenzie basin will at once cease to be remote. 

 You are constructing a line to Hudson bay and then that vast territory 

 will be thrown open. So the situation is critical and it requires imme- 

 diate action. 



Pot-huntine There are several causes of the depletion of our wild 

 the Greatest life, the natural encroachment of civilization, disease 

 Danger ^^d accident, the killing by sportsmen and the use of 



game for food. We cannot prevent dangers due to the encroachment 

 •of civilization nor can we do much to prevent the ravages of disease 

 and weather, but we can limit the destruction caused by sportsmen, and 

 that problem is being well handled. The most potent cause of them 

 all, however, is the use of game for food. It is almost a truism that 

 the very best way to exterminate any species of wild life is to put a 

 price upon its head. As long as there are dealers in game you will find 

 men who will kill it in spite of anything you may do to the contrary. 

 Before tfie Act prohibiting the sale of game was passed in New York 

 state, one dealer in New York city admitted that he sold 1,000,000 wild 

 birds for food each year. 



What is the remedy? When the cause is well known 

 1Wrds*Art ^^^ remedy follows almost as a matter of course. The 



two agencies that have done more than anything else 

 ior protecting the wild life of the United States are the Migratory 



