156 ROMANCE OF THE BEAVER 
tameness, the people who came to this “fish and 
game preserve, health resort and pleasure ground ” 
should have anopportunity of seeing the wild animals, 
the most interesting of all being the beaver, whose 
works are a positive education for young and old. 
But these people, of whom I have met many, are 
filled with disappointment and disgust when they 
are shown abandoned dams and lodges close to the 
resorts (within a few hundred yards of hotels and 
camps) and are told that the builders themselves 
have been trapped and either killed or sent away 
to zoological gardens or other parts. Such treat- 
ment is scarcely fair to the people and cannot be 
considered wise. The country is certainly rich 
enough to support the parks without the necessity 
of getting money from the sale of the animals 
which the people would far rather see alive and in 
their natural conditions than in ‘“ returns for sale 
of skins.” But the second objection is even more 
far-reaching though more subtle, because people 
do not generally grasp its significance. The trapper 
is told that the beaver are absolutely protected by 
law and that to kill one involves the offender in 
serious trouble, such as imprisonment, fine and 
confiscation of his traps. In other words, by strict 
Government orders beaver may not be killed. 
These trappers are usually men of fair-play who 
understand rude justice better than obscure reason- 
ings. They believe that what is food for the goose 
is food for the gander, and that if they, who trap 
