482 APPENDIX 



It -will be seen by those who have a knowledge of the great 

 value of these rich northern furs, a large proportion of which 

 may be presumed to have come from the Mackenzie Basin, how 

 large and important that trade has been, and it is expedient 

 that, without unduly interfering vidth the rights of settlers or 

 the usual privileges of Indians, this great fur trade should be 

 fostered and even made a source of direct revenue to the 

 Dominion. 



The Eight Eeverend Bishop Glut, in his evidence, called 

 attention to the damage to this interest caused by the use of 

 " poison," which is strychnia of the most powerful kind, in the 

 capture of such animals as the fox or wolf. He deprecates its 

 use, first on account of the danger to those using it and from 

 the fact that it causes useless destruction, inasmuch as the foxes 

 and wolves that swallow the frozen bait have time to run and 

 die far beyond where they may be found, and in the case of 

 other animals for which it is not intended, it destroys directly 

 by eating the bait, and indirectly by the eating of the animals 

 which have been poisoned by it. 



Again, there is great danger of some species of fur-bearing 

 animals becoming extinct by the greater ease in their capture, 

 such as the beaver, which many years ago became almost extinct 

 in the United States when fashion necessitated the exclusive 

 use of its fur in felt and other hats, and more recently the 

 same prospect of extirpation threatened the mink which now 

 threatens the soutH sea or fur seal ; these considerations pointing 

 to the expediency of the Government making a measure of 

 protection a source of revenue by the leasing of certain fur 

 districts with a limitation as to the catch of certain kinds of 

 their furs. 



Of the fresh water food fishes of the region. Back's "gray- 

 ling," an excellent species not prevalent elsewhere, seems to be 

 found everywhere in its rivers, and even west of the Eocky 

 Mountains; but the staple product of its lakes and large rivers 

 seems to be whitefish of great weight and excellent flavor, and 

 trout often reaching forty pounds in weight, and evidence goes 

 to show that the farther north the greater the yield of fish till 

 the quantity becomes enormous. As an illustration, the follow- 

 ing is given from the evidence of Prof. Macoun, who quotes 

 Sir John Eichardson to the effect that one of the early over- 

 land Pranklia expeditions took fifty thousand whitefish on a 

 north-eastern arm of Great Bear Lake, and Sir John Eichardson 

 also states that the great lake trout swarm in all the northern 

 great lakes. 



