Page 373 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

GAME PRP:SF.RVES AND LAWS IN CANADA 351
descended population is impatient of real restraint, and objects to meas- ures that are drastic, even though they are necessary? In Ontario. Commissioner Evans has been splendidly supported by the Government, and by all the real sportsmen of that province; but the gunners and guerrillas of destruction have successfully postponed several of the re- forms that he has advocated, and which should have been carried into effect.
So far as public moral support for game protection is concerned I think that the prairie and mountain provinces have the best of it. In Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Athabasca and British Columbia, the spirit of the people is mainly correct, and the chief thing that seems to be lacking is a Kelly Evans in each of those provinces to urge public sentiment into strong action. For example, why should Alberta still permit the hunting and killing of prong-horned antelope, when it is so well known that that species is vanishing like a mist before the morning sun? IthinkitisbecausenooneseemstohaverisenupasG.O.Shields did in the United States, to make a big fuss about it, and demand a re- form. Atanyrate,alltheprovincesofCanadathatstillpossessantelope should immediately pass laws giving that species absolute close seasons for ten years. Why neglect it longer, when such neglect is now so very wrong? Whether this is done or not, I sincerely hope that hereafter no true American sportsman, will be guilty of killing one of the vanishing antelope of Canada, even though "the law doth give it."
The Game Preserves of Canada
In the creation of National parks and gaine preserves, some of the provinces of the Canadian nation have displayed a degree of foresight andenterprisethatmeritssincereadmiration. Whileindifferentj^rox^- inces the exact status of these establishments may \'ary somewhat, the main purpose of each is the same,—the preservation of the forests and the wild life. In all of them a regulated amount of fishing is permitted, and in some the taking of fur-bearing animals is permitted ; but I believe in all the birds and furless mammals are strictly protected. In some parks the carrying of firearms still is permitted, but that pri\dlege is quite out of harmony with the spirit and purposes of a game preserve, and should be abolished. If it is necessary to carry firearms through a preserve, as often happens in the Yellowstone Park, it can be done under seals that are affixed by duly appointed officers • and thus will temptation be kept out of the way of sinners.
Up to this date I never have seen a publication which set forth in one place even so much as an annotated list of the game preserves of the various provinces of Canada, and at present exact information regarding them is rather difficult to obtain. It seems that an adequate govern- mental publication on this subject is now due, and overdue.
Ontario.—"At the present time," says Commissioner Evans in his "Final Report," "the Algonquin National Park is the only actual game preserve in the Pro\'ince, being in fact a game reserve and not a forest