8 
Nature Portraits 
exterminated or driven away. . . . 
In cases where natural conditions 
have been restored lor a few years, 
vegetation has again carpeted the 
, birds and deer are coming 
back, and hundreds of persons, espe- 
cially from the immediate neighbour- 
hood, come each summer to enjoy 
the privilege of camping. Some at 
least of the forest reserves should 
afford perpetual protection to the 
native fauna and flora, safe havens of 
refuge to our rapidly diminishing 
kinds, and 
. _ Photographed in the Bitter Root Mountains at an altitude of 8.500 feet, 
tree Ccimping grounds for the ever- The party found him crossing a large rock and by surrounding him. made 
. . - him hesitate long enough to enable Mr. Carlin to make the photograph 
increasing numbers ot men and 
women who have learned to rind rest, health and recreation in the splendid 
forests and flower-clad meadows of our mountains.” The enlargement of 
our sympathies is also well reflected in the many societies that aim to 
lessen cruelty to animals. 
Hunting to kill is not necessarily cruel. The best hunting is that 
which kills quickly. The poorest — for both the hunted and the hunter — 
is that which prolongs the struggle. Nature herself could be indicted for 
cruelty were not her practices dictated by inevitable conditions; but this 
fact does not release man, who acts largely as a moral agent. In nature, 
many animals meet violent or tragic deaths. The bird of passage that can- 
not keep up with its fellows is caught by the hawk or owl. The weaklings 
and the stragglers are taken. Where are the graves of the unfit ? 
The practices of any age are but the expressions of the needs and 
motives of that age. Much of the hunting is dictated bv the desire of 
profits in money, and these profits often depend on fashion. Mere fashion 
has been the cause of the practical extermination of species of birds. The 
demand for furs is leading to similar results. Many other species naturally 
perish before the continued onslaught of civilization, by means of which the 
native haunts are destroyed. It is inevitable that the animal creation, as a 
whole, shall recede as the earth is subdued to man. But too often this 
creation has fallen long before its time. All the foregoing remarks 
illustrate what we believe to be an enlarging spiritual vision respecting our 
own place in tbe world. 
wild animals of the larger 
By W. E. Carlin 
WESTERN SHREW 
