FOREST AND STREAM 
G 55 
May 25, 1912 
THE LAST CARRY. 
Photograph by Paul Yates. 
Sport in the Yellowhead Pass 
F ew districts in Canada that are not far re¬ 
moved from the beaten track can offer such 
opportunities to the sportsman as the wild 
country around the Yellowhead Pass, the rugged 
territory in the Rocky Mountains on the eastern 
border of British Columbia. I spent several 
weeks in this dictrict, and shot a variety of game. 
This country had not been much frequented by 
the white hunter hitherto, owing to the difficulty 
of access. To gain the pass it was necessary to 
embark upon a pack train journey from Edmon¬ 
ton. The going, however, is so bad that few at¬ 
tempt the journey, the pack trail being of the 
worst description, and so badly neglected that 
we found it littered with rocks and deadfalls, 
rendering it well nigh impassable to the horses. 
Twelve miles a day of ten hours was reckoned 
fast traveling. This state of affairs, however, is 
now becoming a thing of the past, for the rad- 
way is being pushed through this pass, and the 
adjacent country should soon be accessible. 
The district is very wild in character, densely 
forested, with here and there vast tracts of 
burnt country, the deadfall of which has piled 
up to a height of ten or twelve feet, thickly 
By W. R. GILBERT 
interwoven with poplar and cottonwood under¬ 
growth,, rendering it an ideal haunt for black, 
brown and grizzly bears, while partridges, grouse 
and prairie chickens may be found in abund¬ 
ance. The districts will become a finer field for 
the sportsman ere long, owing to the action of 
the Government, whereby 5,000 square miles of 
country among the mountains on the Alberta 
side of the inter-provincial boundary has been 
taken over as a natural park. This will provide 
a sanctuary for all kinds of game. The red man 
in the past has wrought sad havoc among the 
game, merely killing for the sake of killing or 
for hides and fur. The game within the in¬ 
closure multiplying unchecked will become so 
abundant that it will restock the surrounding 
country. 
Moreover, the Government in response to the 
agitation of Canadian and British sportsmen is 
keeping a more watchful eye on the Indians. If 
unmolested, these red men will entirely deplete 
twenty or thirty square miles of the best game 
tract within two years. It is due to the Indians’ 
unprincipled slaughter that the hunt for the 
mountain goat, sheep, caribou and moose has 
become so difficult. A notable instance of this 
ruthless killing was brought before my notice 
while on the trail. A herd of eighty deer in 
migrating came near a colony of Indians, who 
rounded up the herd and killed every one. They 
took what meat they wanted, which was very 
little, and left the rest to rot. 
The rolling country around Tete Jaune cache 
and through the Thomson Valley on the west 
side of the Yellowhead Pass a few years ago 
teemed with game. To-day one has to scour 
thirty or forty miles, and high up on the moun¬ 
tains to get a shot. The same applies to the 
rivers. The Indian constructs a trap at a likely 
point and catches them by the hundreds. He 
will take one or two from the trap and leave 
the rest to perish or throw them away. Often 
he will not go near a trap for days, during which 
time it will become choked with fish, the greater 
part of which suffocate. Some of the white 
settlers in the vicinity of the best rivers upon 
discovering a trap promptly smash it and tell the 
owner to cease such methods under threat of 
being thrown into the water. 
The hunting equipment need not be of a very 
