CONSERVATION OF BIRDS AND MAMMALS 147 



was under our consideration, I had a letter from Dr. H. W. Henshaw, 

 Chief of the Biological Survey of the United States Dept. of Agricul- 

 ture, which is charged with the preservation of game in the National 

 Reserves in the United States. I was discussing with him the general 

 question of the preservation of the caribou in Alaska and northern 

 Canada and, replying on the 21st July, 1914, to my request for his 

 opinions on certain matters, he said in part : 



" I consider it very important for the preservation of the caribou 

 that the females should be permanently protected. It is a well-known 

 fact that caribou are now extinct in considerable areas in North 

 America where formerly they were common, and that their numbers 

 are still steadily decreasing, while the area they inhabit is also becoming 

 more and more restricted. With the advance of settlements in the 

 north this process of extermination is certain to continue and even be 

 hastened, and it appears to me that it would be most unwise not to 

 protect the females at all times, since an open season for the females 

 would simply add another factor to hasten the extinction of the species. 

 Caribou are among the most easily exterminated of all our large game 

 animals and the greatest care must be exercised to prevent their 

 extinction in the not distant future." 



The Commission has been taking up this question of the protection 

 of caribou and hopes to secure that protection along certain lines, 

 chiefly by the absolute protection of females and by limiting the 

 number of hides coming out of the country. I shall not speak further 

 on the caribou beyond mentioning the necessity of its maintenance for 

 the benefit of the people in that northern country. As you know, it 

 furnishes the chief material for clothing for the Eskimo and the people 

 in the north country and also, in certain seasons of the year, their 

 chief means of subsistence. Therefore, to our northern people, whose 

 presence is necessary in those northerly territories, apart from phil- 

 anthropic reasons, the caribou is an essential animal and it seems to 

 us that when a Government is willing to spend money on the importa- 

 tion of a foreign species of caribou, the reindeer, it is really worth 

 while protecting our native reindeer, the caribou, which, while not 

 domesticated in the same way as the ordinary species, is more suitable 

 for a number of purposes. 



Pronosed '^^^ musk-ox is another animal which is being exter- 



Reserve for minated in certain parts of the Arctic. This reduction 



Musk-oxen j^^g ^,ggjj described in Stefansson's reports and in 



reports from the Royal Northwest Mounted Police. It is sought 

 very diligently by pelt hunters and so-called sportsmen who are fond 

 of footing it, because the musk-ox is an animal that neither fights 



