Jan. i6, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
early summer and work as far north as possible 
by canoe, returning to Whale River before the 
freeze-up and then home across country by dog 
team in the early winter. 
A most valuable but difficult trip and one 
which has never been taken as far as I am 
aware would be across the broadest part of 
Labrador, from Great Whale River to Rigolet, 
or the reverse of this, or the explorer might 
cross by way of Lake Minto and Leaf River, or 
go still further north and follow Kogaluk River 
and Payne Lake to Ungava Bay. All of these 
regions are entirely unknown; their exploration 
would be a contribution of very high value to 
science. 
It should be remembered that Great Whale 
River is the last point at which one can outfit 
and even there only modestly. Food and cloth¬ 
ing for the entire trip should be carried from 
this point, for it is not safe to depend on the 
game for sustenance. All the game that we 
secured would not have sustained us more than 
one week. We were so uncertain of the time 
required for crossing that we delayed but little 
either for exploration of the country or for 
hunting. We could not retrace our steps and 
we knew that had ice formed on the lakes and 
rivers we would have been in a bad way. We 
now know that under ordinary conditions of 
weather the trip can be made nicely in about 
a month. 
Camping in this desolate country is a very 
different matter from camping further south. 
There are seldom any trees for shelter and often 
little or no wood for a fire. At sundown the 
tents must be sought to avoid the mosquitoes. 
Some miserable weather must be expected. I 
do not know whether it was exceptional or not, 
but during our trip it rained fully three-fourths 
of the time and high winds and heavy gales 
91 
were frequent. Yet with all this the country 
has a strange charm of its own, perhaps from 
its very barrenness and utter desolation. 
The beautiful view of Clear Water River will 
always be with us as vividly as when we stood 
on its banks and thought of how seldom man 
had ever looked upon it. The white Arctic 
moss, looking like snow, the green of the shrub¬ 
bery and scattered trees, the patches of blue 
and red berries, the white rapids and the deep, 
clear lake and river up which we had come 
made a picture that we can never forget. Could 
you see it as we did I think that the calm but 
lonely grandeur of it all would make you think 
of when and why it all was made and what a 
small, miserable thing a man really is. How 
many other such scenes there are in Labrador 
which have never yet been visited by any human 
being. Do you not wish to be the first to look 
upon them ? 
Plea for Bird Protection 
New York, Jan. 6. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: The following appeared in a Con¬ 
necticut paper over the signature of Edward 
Taylor, of Sandy Hook, that State: 
“A serious problem for sportsmen of all 
classes to thoroughly consider how to protect 
the noblest of all game birds, the partridge; 
at the same time to so fix it that they will grad¬ 
ually but surely increase; also to give the sports¬ 
men some pleasure every year, but to restrict 
them by time limit and establishing game pre¬ 
serves so the birds will increase in spite of them. 
This can be managed as well as most business 
propositions. You arrange it so the birds get 
60 per cent, and the sportsmen 40 per cent., and 
they are bound to increase. Do not as a few 
have proposed, stop all shooting for three or 
five years. That would be worse than folly, as 
there would be a great many that would sneak 
in with some trap or device to capture and do 
more damage than they would to let them shoot 
for a short season. Besides it would be adver¬ 
tised in all the adjoining States and at the open¬ 
ing of the first season they would flock in by 
the carloads and at the elapsing of the first sea¬ 
son there would be less birds than when the law 
went into effect, neither would we have any 
capitai to restock or protect with, no shooting, 
no license and no money to do business with. 
This would be my idea to allow the sportsmen 
some pleasure in hunting, but so restrict them 
by preserves and limiting their time to shoot, 
that the birds will increase in spite of them. 
“The woodcock is a migratory bird. We can¬ 
not do much to protect them. The quail can 
be restocked, should we have a winter so severe 
as to kill them, otherwise they will increase 
under any law that will protect the other game 
birds. The partridge, the noblest of them all, 
cannot be restocked. Let us protect them. They 
break flocks and scatter over all the surround¬ 
ing country somewhere from the middle to the 
last of September. October is termed by some 
their crazy month. They often fly against build¬ 
ings even though not pursued by anything dur¬ 
ing this month, but seldom in any other and do 
not come together again until cool, frosty 
weather in November. Therefore, you could 
allow shooting through October when they are 
scattered and the leaves are on; also the eai ly 
part of November. That would give the sports¬ 
men a little chance at the woodcock without 
doing such great damage to the partridge. 
“In ordinary seasons you can kill more par¬ 
tridges in the last ten days of November than 
all the rest of the season. I would recommend 
taking off the last ten or fifteen days in Novem¬ 
ber. Have the season close on the 15th or 20th 
instead of Dec. r and establish the State game 
preserves in towns where suitable cover exists. 
If that is not enough, take off a few days more. 
It can be handled very easily. Be sure and give 
the birds the advantage, for when they increase 
the sportsmen’s pleasure also increases. 
“Now I am going to plead with all the sports¬ 
men in this State, also with each and every rep¬ 
resentative in our Legislature that the game 
birds and particularly the partridge be protected 
by establishing game preserves and shortening 
the season ten or fifteen days in the last of 
November and not to stop shooting for three 
or five years, as that surely would be the height 
of folly. 
“I also think the Hungarian partridge, if they 
stand our winters, are a great addition, as they 
lay from fifteen to twenty-four eggs and would 
increase rapidly.” W. B. L. 
The Forest and Stream may be obtained from 
any newsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to 
supply you regularly. 
Qaeen Charlotte Island Caribou. 
Chilliw.^^ck, B. C., Jan. 2 . — Editor Forest and 
Stream: It will interest a large number of your 
readers to know that the mystery of the Queen 
Charlotte Island caribou has been finally set 
at rest by the killing of three of the animals on 
the north end of these islands by two half- 
breeds of Masset. 
The species was first described by Ernest 
Thompson Seton from a fragment of a skull 
with the horns and small piece of skin attached, 
which was forwarded to the Provincial Museum 
at Victoria from Masset some six or eight 
years ago. 
This fragment consisted of a portion of the 
occiput of a small male bearing the horns, one 
of which was deformed to a mere stump—very 
slender evidence on which to base a new species. 
It was evident, however, that if the specimen 
really came from the Queen Charlottes, it 
would prove to be a distinct species, as no 
caribou are found on the neighboring coast. 
Mr. Qsgood, of the United States Biological 
Survey, who spent several months on the 
islands, after carefully weighing the evidence 
then at hand, decided that there were no caribou 
on the islands, and that the fragment had been 
imported by Indians—probably from the 
■Alaskan peninsula, as the horn bore consider¬ 
able resemblance to the caribou inhabiting that 
district (Rangifer tarandus grantii). 
Almost any other man would have arrived at 
the same conclusion, as it seems incredible that 
such a wandering animal as a caribou should be 
confined to one corner of a small island, and be 
unknown to the majority of the native inhabi¬ 
tants. The late John Fannin, of Victoria, who 
had the advantage of hearing much of the evi¬ 
dence at first hand, also arrived at a similar 
conclusion, and offered $500 to any one who 
would bring him any caribou killed on the 
