r part of the Gulf coast, where the need
of protection is much greater than on the Labrador. That is
the interior of the Gaspe peninsula. A certain region in the
interior has been set aside as a park, but it is quite
unprotected. Here, we have moose, woodland caribou and the
red deer, besides nearly all the fur-bearing animals that we
find on the Labrador. There is no game protection whatever.
Moose and caribou are killed mostly out of season--when they
are yarded, or when it is easy to run them down. In many
cases the meat is left in the woods, the hide only being
wanted. Lumbermen are penetrating up the rivers, further
into the interior--every lumber camp is a centre from which
the game laws are persistently violated.... the game, both
fur and feather, (particularly the ruffled grouse) is
rapidly disappearing before their pitiless onslaughts.
Lumber camps are opened much earlier in the season than they
used to be; so that the interior lakes and head waters of
the rivers are being cleaned out of fish taken while in the
act of spawning. All this may seem very strong language; but
it is really not exaggerated. It may help to show the need
of more and better conservation....
Mr. Alfred Russell Wallace, the founder and exponent of the science of
zoo-geography, writes:
... your address on "Animal Sanctuaries" in Labrador, which
I have read with the greatest interest and astonishment.
Such reckless destruction I should hardly have thought
possible.
There is a considerable public opinion now against the use
of feathers as _ornaments_[A] because it inevitably leads to
the extermination of some of the most beautiful of living
things; but I think the attempts to stop it by legal
enactments begin at the wrong end. They seek to punish the
actual collectors or importers of the plumes, who are really
the least guilty and the most difficult to get at. It is the
actual _wearers_ of such ornaments who should be subject to
fines or even imprisonment, because, without the _demand_
they make there would be no supply. They also are,
presumably, the most educated and should know better. If it
were known that any lady with a feather in her hat (or
elsewhere) would be taken before a magistrate and _fined_,
and, on a second offence, _imprisoned_, a
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