Page 379 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

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GAME PRESERVES AND LAWS IN CANADA 357
Manitoba.—What are we to think of a "bag limit" of fifty ducks per day in October and November? A "limit" indeed! Evidently, Manitoba is tired of having ducks, ruffed grouse, pinnated and other grouse pestering her farmers and laborers. While assuming to fix bag limits that will be of some benefit to those species, the limit is distinctly off, and nothing short of a quick and drastic reform will save a remnant that will remain visible to the naked eye.
New Brunswick.—This is the banner provmce in the protection of moose, caribou and deer, even while permitting them to be shot for sport. Of course, only males are killed, and I am assured by competent judges that thus far the kilHng of the finest and largest male moose has had no bad effect upon the stature or antlers of the species as a whole.
Nova Scotia.^—If there is anything wrong with the game laws of Nova Scotia, it lies in the wide-open sale of moose meat and all kinds of feathered game during the open season. If that province were more heavily populated, it would mean a great destruction of game. Even with conditions as they are, the sale permitted is entirely wrong, and against the best interests of 97 per cent of the people.
As previously mentioned, the law against the waste of moose meat is bothnovelandadmirable. Thesavingofanyconsiderableportionof the flesh of a full-grown bull moose, along with its head, is a large order; butitisright. Thedegreeofaccountabilitytowhichguidesareheldfor the doings of the men whom they pilot into the woods is entirely com- mendable, and worthy of imitation. If a sportsman or gunner does the wrong thing, the guide loses his license.
Saskatchewan.—This is another of the too-liberal provinces having no real surplus of big game with which to sustain for any length of time anexcessofgenerosity. Iamtoldthatinthisprovincethereisnowa greatdealofopencountryaroundeachwildanimal. Andyet,itcheer- fully offers two moose, two elk, two caribou and two antelope per season toeachlicensedgunnerorsportsman. Thelimitistoogenerousbyhalf. Why throw away an extra $250 worth of game with each license ? That is precisely what the people of Saskatchewan are doing to-day.
Andthatantelope-killing! Itshouldbestoppedatonce,andforten years.
Yukon.—This province permits the sale of all the finest and best wild game within its borders,—moose, elk, caribou, bison, musk-ox, sheep and goats! The flesh of all these may be sold during the open season, and for sixty days thereafter. Of the species named above, the barren ground caribou is the only one regarding which we need not worry because that species still exists in millions. The Osborn caribou {Rangifer osborni), can be exterminated in our own times, because it is nowhere really numerous, and it inhabits exposed situations.