RESULTS OF BEAVERS’ WORK 157 
only as a means of livelihood may not kill beaver 
neither must anyone else, except possibly as 
specimens for museums or such special purpose, 
but that the Government should indulge in beaver 
killing for commercial reasons is past their under- 
standing. To fully appreciate what I am speaking 
of it might be well to explain the situation a little 
more clearly. The land which has been set apart 
as a game reserve and park was formerly occupied 
by trappers who made their living out of the wild 
lands. According to their unwritten law, a man 
on establishing a claim has a right to a certain 
tract of country for trapping purposes. These 
rights are regarded as almost sacred, and the man 
who poaches on another’s boundary is held to be 
little better than a thief. These rights go from 
father to son, with the understanding, I believe, 
that if the land is not trapped for a specified 
number of years, the privilege is forfeited. In 
order to get possession of a desirable tract, men 
will go great distances and endure untold hard- 
ships, with the understanding that once they have 
succeeded in finding what they want it is to be 
theirs, unless sold by the Government. It will be 
seen by this that the best trappers who for years 
had set their line of traps through the land which 
is now a park felt their expulsion very severely. 
To make amends to them a few were taken on as 
rangers or wardens. The men, though feeling 
themselves in hard luck, realised at heart that it 
