_For private circulation only_

DRAFTOf APlan for BeginningANIMAL SANCTUARIESInLABRADOR

BY

LT. -COLONEL WILLIAM WOOD

(_to be submitted to the Fourth Annual Meeting of the ConservationCommission of the Dominion of Canada in 1913. _)

I. RECAPITULATION. 

The original address on _Animal Sanctuaries in Labrador_ was publishedin the spring of 1911. The _Supplement_ was published in the summer of1912. The present _Plan_, or _Second Supplement_, is now being submittedfor consideration to the Fourth Annual Meeting of the Commission ofConservation at the beginning of 1913. 

These papers are published for free distribution among those who areinterested in the preservation of wild life. They are to be obtained onapplication to _The Secretary, Commission of Conservation, Ottawa, Canada_. But both the _Address_ and _Supplement_ are almost out ofprint. 

Communications on the subject itself should be addressed direct tome:--_Colonel Wood, Quebec, Canada. _

 * * * * *

I gladly take this opportunity of thanking the many experts whose kindhelp has given my papers whatever real value they possess. Some of theseexperts have never been called so in their lives, and will be greatlyastonished to find that they are called so now. But when I know they arethe thing, why should I hesitate about the name? In any proper meaningof the word there are several first-class "experts" among my friends whogo fishing, sealing, whaling, hunting, trapping, "furring" or guidingfor their livelihood. And I hereby most gratefully acknowledge all Ihave learnt during many a pleasant day with them, afloat and ashore. Theother kind of experts, those who are called so by the world at large, have been quite as generous with their information and advice. In fact, they have been so very generous that perhaps I should call myself theeditor, rather than the author, of the _Supplement_, as more than halfof it is occupied by extracts from their letters concerning the_Address_. 

It might be as well to restate the argument of this _Address_ in thefewest possible words. 

An eagerly exploiting people in an easily exploited country, we are onlytoo apt to live on the capital of all our natural resources. We are alsoin the habit of developing one thing at the expense of everything elseconnected with it. The value of these other things often remainsunrecognised till too late. For instance, reckless railways burn forestswhich ensure a constant flow of water for irrigation, navigation, powerplant, and fish, besides providing wood for timber and shelter for birdand beast. The presence of a construction gang generally means theneedless extermination of every animal in the neighbourhood. Thepresence of mills means the needless absence of fish. And the presenceof ill-governed cities means the needless and deadly pollution of waterthat never was meant for a sewer. The idea is the same in eachdisgraceful case. It is, simply, to snatch whatever is most coveted forthe moment, with least trouble to one's self, and at no matter whatexpense to Nature and the future of man. The cant phrase is only toowell known--"Lots more where that came from". Exploitation is destroyingnow what civilisation will long to restore hereafter. This is lamentablytrue about material things. It is truer still about the higher thanmaterial things. And it is truest of all about both the material andhigher values of wild life, which we administer as if we were the finalspendthrift heirs and not trustees. 

Animal sanctuaries are places where man is passive and the rest ofNature active. A sanctuary is the same thing to wild life as a spring isto a river. In itself a sanctuary is a natural "zoo". But it is muchmore than a "zoo". It can only contain a certain number of animals. Itssurplus must overflow to stock surrounding areas. And it constitutes arefuge for all species whose lines of migration pass through it. So itsvalue in the preservation of desirable wild life is not to be denied. Ofcourse, sanctuaries occasionally develope troubles of their own; for ifman interferes with the balance of nature in one way he must be preparedto interfere in others. But all experience shows that an easily workedsystem will ensure a _maximum_ of gain and a _minimum_ of loss. 

Up till quite recently Nature had her own animal sanctuaries in vast andsparsely settled lands like Labrador. But now she has none. There is noplace left where wild life is safe from men who use all the modern meansof destruction without being bound by any of the modern means ofconservation. And this is nowhere truer than in Labrador, though thearea of the whole peninsula is equal to eleven Englands, while, even atthe busiest season along the coast, there is not one person to more thanevery ten square miles. Since the white man went there at leastthree-quarters of the forests have been burnt, and sometimes the soilburnt too. Wild life of all kinds has been growing rapidly less. Thewalrus is receding further and further north. Seals are diminishing. Whales are beginning to disappear. Fur-bearing animals can hardly holdtheir own much longer in face of the ever increasing demand for theirpelts and the more systematic invasion of their range. The opening up ofthe country in the north will mean the extinction of the great migratingherd of barren-ground caribou, unless protection is enforced. The coastbirds are going fast. Some very old men can still remember the greatauk, which is now as extinct as the dodo. Elderly men have eaten theLabrador duck, which has not been seen alive for thirty years. And youngmen will certainly see the end of the Hudsonian and Eskimo curlews verysoon, under present conditions. The days of commercial "egging" on alarge scale are over, because eggs of the final lay were taken like therest, and the whole bird life was depleted below paying quantities. But"egging" still goes on in other ways, especially at the hands ofNewfoundlanders, who are wantonly wasteful in their methods, unlike thecoast people, who only take what the birds will replace. TheNewfoundlanders and other strangers gather all the eggs they see, putthem into water, and throw away every one that floats. Thus many morebird lives are destroyed than eggs are eaten or sold, because schoonersappear towards the end of the regular laying season, when most of theeggs are about to hatch out--and these are the ones that float. But evengreater destruction is done when a schooner stays several days in thesame place. For then the crew go round, first smashing every egg theysee, and afterwards gathering every egg they see, because they know thefew they find the second time must have been newly laid. 

Many details were given of other forms of destruction, and some detailsof the revolting cruelties practised there, as in every other placewhere wild life is grossly abused instead of being sanely used. Allclasses of legitimate human interest were dealt with in turn; and itwas shown that the present system--or want of system--was bad for eachone: bad for such wild life as must still be used for necessary food, bad for every kind of business in the products of wild life, bad for thefuture of sport, bad for the pursuits of science, and bad for theprospects of wild "zoos". The _Address_ ended with a plea forconservation, and pointed out that the only class of people who couldpossibly be benefitted under present conditions were those who wereready to destroy both the capital and interest of any natural resourcesfor the sake of snatching a big and immediate, but really criminal, profit. 

The _Address_ was sent out for review to several hundreds of general andspecialist newspapers, and, thanks to the expert help so freely givenme, ran the gauntlet of the press without finding one dissentient voiceagainst it. Copies were also sent to every local expert known, as wellas to those experts in the world outside who were the most likely to beinterested. Three classes of invaluable expert opinion were thusobtained for the _Supplement_. The first class may be called experts onLabrador; the second, experts on wild life in general; and the third, experts on the public aspects of the question. All three were entirely infavour of general conservation for the whole of Labrador and theimmediate establishment of special sanctuaries, as recommended in the_Address_. 

Among the experts on Labrador were the following:--DR BELL, late head ofthe Geological Survey of Canada, who has made seven expeditions intoLabrador and who has always paid particular attention to the mammals; DRCLARKE, Director of Science Education in the State of New York, who hasspent twelve summers studying the natural history of the Gulf; MR. COMEAU, a past master, of fifty years experience as a professionalhunter, guide, inspector and salmon river warden on the North Shore; DRGRENFELL, whose intimate acquaintance with the Atlantic Labrador isuniversally recognised; DR HARE, whose position on the Canadian Labradorcorresponds to that of Dr Grenfell on the Atlantic; DR TOWNSHEND, authorof the standard work on _The Birds of Labrador_; and COMMANDER WAKEHAM, head of the Fisheries Protection Service, who knows the wild life of thewhole coast, from the River St. Lawrence round to Hudson Bay. 

Among the experts on animal life in general were:--THE BOONE ANDCROCKETT CLUB, whose one hundred members include most of the greatestsportsman-naturalists in the United States, and whose influence onwild-life conservation is second to none; THE CAMP FIRE CLUB OF AMERICA, whose larger membership includes many of the best conservationists inCanada as well as the United States; MR. GRINNELL, one of the greatestauthorities in the world on the Indians and wild life of North America;MR. MACOUN, Dominion Naturalist and international expert on seals andwhales, who lately examined the zoogeographical area of Hudson Bay; MR. CLIVE-PHILLIPPS-WOLLEY, author of standard books on big game in the_Badminton Library_ and elsewhere; MR. THOMPSON SETON, whose_Life-history of Northern Mammals_ is the best work of its kind on thearea to which the Labrador peninsula belongs; MAJOR STEVENSON HAMILTON, superintendent of the great Government Game Reserves in South Africa;and MR. ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE, whose original and creative work on thetheory of evolution inseparably connects him with his friend Darwin forall time to come, who is now the last of the giants of the Victorianage, and who is the founder and greatest exponent of the science ofzoogeography, which has a special bearing on Labrador. 

Among the experts on the public aspects of the question were:--MR. BRYCE, who has been an ardent lover of the wilds throughout hisdistinguished career on both sides of the Atlantic; LORD GREY, who paidspecial attention to the subject during his journey to Hudson Bay in1910; MR. KIPLING, whose _Jungle Books_ revealed the soul of wild lifeto so many readers; and MR. ROOSEVELT, a sportsman-naturalist ofworld-wide fame, during whose Presidential terms more wild-lifeconservation was effected in the United States than during all otherPresidential terms put together, before or since. 

To this I am graciously permitted to add that HIS MAJESTY THE KING waspleased to manifest his interest in the subject by taking the _Address_with him to read on his way to India; and that HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THEDUKE OF CONNAUGHT, Governor-General, who has shown his own keen intereston several occasions, has marked his approval by writing the followingletter for publication here:--

 Dear Colonel Wood, I have been reading with the greatest interest your address on Animal Sanctuaries in Labrador and also the draft of the Supplement which you were good enough to send me for perusal. You have certainly been so far rewarded for your trouble by having collected a great weight of testimony and of valuable opinions, all endorsing the useful cause to which you are devoting yourself. 

 I know from reports that many varieties of game, which were threatened with extinction in South Africa ten years ago, have, by the timely establishment of game reserves, been saved, and are now relatively numerous. I may add that this end has not been obtained simply by the establishment of the reserves and by the passing of game-laws, but by enforcing those laws in the most rigid manner and by appointing the right men to enforce them. 

 From personal experience I know what the game reserves have done for East Africa. In these reserves the wild animals are left to breed and live in peace, undisturbed by any one but the game-warden. From them the overflow drifts out into the surrounding districts and provides a plentiful supply for the hunter and settler. What has been done in Africa could be done in Canada and elsewhere. You have so much land which is favourable to birds and beasts, though unfavourable to the settler, that it would seem to be no hardship to give up a suitable area or areas for the purpose of a reserve. This, with the infliction of heavy penalties for the ruthless destruction of animal life, should secure a fresh lease of existence for the various species whose extermination now appears to be imminent. 

 Please accept my best wishes for the success of your work, in which you may always count upon my greatest sympathy. 

 Believe me, Yours truly, ARTHUR. 

II. VERIFICATION. 

In order to make quite sure about conditions up to date, I spent twomonths last summer examining some 1500 miles of coast line, from NovaScotia, round by Newfoundland to the Straits, and thence inwards alongthe Canadian Labrador and North Shore of the St. Lawrence. On the whole, I found that I had rather under- than over-stated the dangersthreatening the wild life there, and that I had nothing to retract fromwhat I said in my _Address_ and _Supplement_. 

As I spent one month among the fishermen of Nova Scotia andNewfoundland, who commit most of the depredations, and the other monthamong the people along the Canadian Labrador, on whom the depredationsare committed, I enjoyed the advantage of hearing both sides of thestory. It was very much what I had heard before and what I said it was. The argument is, that so long as there is no law, or no law put inforce, every man will do what he likes--which is unanswerably true. I amalso afraid that there is no practical answer to the logical deductionfrom this, that so long as bad men can do what they like good men mustdo the same or "get left". Good, bad and indifferent, all alike, aresquandering the capital of the wild life as fast as they can, though thelegitimate interest of it would soon yield far better returns ifconservation was to replace the beggaring methods in vogue to-day. 

I would urge the earliest possible extension of thoroughly well enforcedwild-life conservation laws to the whole Labrador peninsula; and I wouldventure to remind the Commission again, as I did in my _Supplement_, that the wild life of Arctic Canada is even now in danger and ought tobe efficiently protected before it is too late. But, for the presentpurpose, I shall revert to Labrador only; and, for a practicalbeginning, recommend the immediate adoption of conservation only in the"Canadian Labrador". 

So far as I could judge from talking things over with the south coasttrappers, most of the fur-bearing animals seem to be holding their ownfairly well in the market. But it should be remembered that, with therecent great rise in prices, fewer skins may mean more money, and thateven the establishment of fox farms, and the probable establishment ofother fur farms, may not overtake the present increasing demand, which, in its turn, must tend to deplete the original source of supply stillfurther, unless strict conservation is enforced. There was a wonderfulsupply of foxes a year ago, though nothing to the muskrats whichswarmed down south last fall. But failure of food further north mayhave had more to do with those irruptions than any outburst of unusualfecundity. Caribou apparently remain much as they have been lately. Butthe hunger of wolves and the greed of men are two enemies that nothingbut conservation can keep in check. Of course, genuinely "necessaryfood" is not at all in question. I know an old hunter, living atPokkashoo in summer and St. Augustine in winter, who brought in sixteencaribou last season. But he gave fifteen away to really necessitousfamilies and kept only one for himself. 

The whale factories at Lark Harbour and Hawke Bay, on the west coast ofNewfoundland, were both closed for want of whales. The only one in theGulf that was working last year was at Seven Islands, on the NorthShore, 300 miles below Quebec. I happened to be almost in at the deathof the biggest finback ever taken. But, speaking generally, the seasonwas not really prosperous. The station of Seven Islands is worked byNorwegians, who are the most exterminatingly efficient whalers in theworld. They worked their own whaleries to exhaustion and raised so muchfeeling against them among the fishermen that the Norwegian governmentforbad every factory along the shore. They then invented floatingfactories, which may still be used in Canadian waters with deadly effectunless we put whaling under conservation. The feeling among thefishermen here is the same as elsewhere, strongly in favour of thewhales and strongly against the exterminating kind of whaler, becausewhales are believed to drive the bait fish close inshore, which is very"handy" for the fishermen. 

The spring sealing of 1912 was a failure on the Canadian Labrador, asthe main "harp" herd was missed by just one day. The whole industry iscarried on by Newfoundlanders and men whose vessels take their catch toNewfoundland, because the only working plant is concentrated there. Theexcessive spring kill greatly depletes the females and young, as ittakes place in the whelping season, when the herds are moving northalong the off-shore ice; and this depletion naturally spoils not onlythe Newfoundlanders' permanent industry itself but the much smallerinshore autumn catch by our own Canadian Labradorians, when the herdsare moving south. The Canadians along the North Shore and Labrador lookupon the invading Newfoundlanders, in this and other pursuits, very muchas a farmer looks upon a gipsy whose horse comes grazing in hishayfield. And the analogy sometimes does hold good. When men under adifferent government, men who do not own a foot of land in Canada, menwho do not pay specific taxes for Canadian rights, when these menslaughter seals on inshore ice, use land and inlets for cleaning fishand foul the water with their "gurry", and when they also "egg" on otherpeoples' islands in defiance of the law, then the analogy is perfect. Itdoes not hold good, of course, in ordinary fishing, which is conductedunder Dominion licence and vigilantly watched by Commander Wakeham. Butwhether Canada is not giving away too much for what she gets in licencesis quite another question. 

The excessive spring kill by the Newfoundlanders does not seem to be theonly reason why the local seal hunt is not so good as it used to be. Thewhites complain that the Indians along the coast kill an undue number ofseals on the one hand and of caribou on the other. But fishermen all theworld over are against the harbour seals; and generally exaggerate theirdepredations, as they exaggerate the depredations of most kinds ofseabirds. Whatever the fate of the harbour seals should be, there can beno doubt that the harps or Greenland seals, the bearded orsquare-flippers, the grey or horseheads, and the gigantic andmagnificently game hoods, should all be put under conservation. I amalso inclined to think that the walrus could be coaxed back to what oncewere some of his most favourite haunts. Just now he has no chancewhatever; and he is so extremely rare that the one I nearly rowed thedinghy into last August, down at Whale Head East, was only the secondseen inside the Straits during the present century. 

III. PLAN OF CONSERVATION FOR THE CANADIAN LABRADOR. 

Whaling, sealing and deep-sea fishing are Dominion and internationalaffairs; and whaling, at all events, is soon to engage the attention ofstatesmen, experts and the public--let us hope, to some good end. Theinland birds and mammals from the St. Lawrence to Ungava now come underthe Province of Quebec; though no effective protection has ever reachedthe Canadian Labrador. Beyond this, again, lies the Atlantic Labrador, which is entirely under Newfoundland. So I would suggest that theCommission should try a five-year experiment in the conservation ofseabird life along the Canadian Labrador, because this would not comeinto overlapping contact with any other exercised authority, because itis bound to be successful, because it will only cost a sum that shouldbe had for the asking, because it is most urgently pressing, and becauseit can be begun at once, to the lasting advantage of all concerned. 

The "Canadian Labrador" is the last remaining vestige of theNo-Man's-Land which, only a hundred years ago, began at the Saguenay, within 120 miles of Quebec. Then, as the organised "North Shore"advanced down stream, the unorganised "Canadian Labrador" receded beforeit. Fifty years ago the dividing line was at Seven Islands, 300 milesbelow Quebec. To-day it runs just east of Natashquan and is a full 500miles below. 

There is no stranger country anywhere than this Canadian Labrador. DrGrenfell's Labrador, which has nothing to do with Canada, is known toeveryone. But the very existence of our own Labrador, with its 200miles of coastline and its more than 20, 000 islands, is quite unknown, as a separate entity, to all but a very few outside of its little, butincreasing, population of 1200 souls. It lies on the north shore of theGulf, just inside the Straits of Belle Isle, and runs from Bradore inthe east to Kegashka in the west. Here, close beside the crowded trackof ocean liners, and well below the latitude of London, is by far themost southerly arctic region in the world. It is a land of rock andmoss; for, except along the river valleys, there are neither grass nortrees. No crops are grown or ever can be grown. There are no horses, cattle, poultry, pigs or sheep. Reindeer are said to be coming. Butthere are none at present. The only domestic animals are dogs, that howllike wolves, but never bark. And yet it is a country which is rich, andmight he richer still, in fish and fur, and which seems formed by Natureto be a perfect paradise of all that is most desirable in the wild lifeof the north, especially in the seabirds that are now being done todeath among its countless archipelagoes. 

Its natural features are not the only strange things in it. It is acuriosity of government, or, rather, of the want of government. It is_in_ the Province of Quebec and _in_ the Dominion; yet, in one sense, not _of_ either. For it in the only place of its kind inhabited byeducated whites, in any part of the self-governing Empire, where no manhas ever cast a single vote or ever had the right to cast one. Theelectoral line stops short at Natashquan, 36 miles west of Kegashka. So1200 good Canadians have no vote. They are dumb and their twogovernments are deaf. They have bought their little holdings from theProvince; and they pay Canadian custom dues to the Dominion, oneverything they get from the Quebec truck traders or the Hudson Bayposts, in exchange for their fish and fur. But they do not enjoy eventhe elementary right of protection from depredation committed by men whohave no claim on Canada at all. Let me add that by this I do not meanfor one moment to abuse my friends the Newfoundlanders. A kindlierpeople I have never met. Nor do I mean to abuse the Americans and NovaScotians who sometimes slink inside the three-mile limit. But I do meanto draw attention to the regrettable fact that the absence of allwild-life conservation is becoming ruinous to everyone concerned--evento the exterminating Newfoundlanders, who are now making our shores asbleak a desert as they have made their own. 

Of course the Canadian Labrador should help itself. Let it form a"Neighbourhood Improvement Association" under the Commission. There aregood leaders in Dr Hare, the head of the medical mission; in the threereligious missions--Anglican, Presbyterian and Roman Catholic; and amongthe principal fishermen, who are mostly Anglo- but partlyFrench-Canadian. What the coast needs is not coddling and charity butconservation and protection against depredators from outside. The bestway to begin is to protect the seabirds. And the best body to do this isthe Commission of Conservation. The Province of Quebec has just put thefinishing touch to a great work by establishing an animal sanctuary inthe heart of the Laurentides National Park. It is also doing good workby making the game laws more effective elsewhere. But, being dependentlyhuman, it can hardly pass over the whole North Shore of voters in orderto give special protection to the little, voteless No-Man's-Land of theCanadian Labrador; though immediate special protection is a very vitalconcern to that most neglected part of Canada. The Dominion stops shortby water as decidedly as the Province does by land. So an ideal place isleft defenceless between the two, as if expressly made for theCommission to conserve. 

I know that the Commission cannot undertake any executive work of apermanent character. But it can undertake an experimental investigationfor a term of years. And, here again, the Canadian Labrador offers aperfect field. For if only five years' effective conservation isextended to the bird life of that coast the whole situation will besaved. I do not presume to lay down the law on the subject. But I wouldventure to suggest that some such plan as the following would probablybe found quite effective at the very moderate cost of five thousanddollars a year. 

1. The residents to form their own "Neighbourhood ImprovementAssociation" under the Commission of Conservation. 

2. The Commission to protect the bird life of the coast experimentallyfor five years, from the 1st of May, 1913. 

3. The 200 miles of coast, from Kegashka to Bradore, to be divided into5 beats. One local boat and two local men to each beat, from the 1st ofMay to the 1st of September, by contract, at $600 a boat = $3, 000. Eachboat to have a motor capable of doing at least 6 knots an hour. Localmen are essential. Strangers, however good otherwise, would be lost inthat labyrinth of uncharted and unlighted islands. $2 a day a man is nottoo much for these men, who would have to give up their whole time inthe busy season, the only season, in fact, when they make money, exceptfor the chance of "furring". $1 a day a boat is equally reasonable. Thefive beats might be called the Romaine, Harrington, Tabatière, Shekattika and Bradore. 

4. A sixth boat should move about inspecting the whole coast during theseason. It should have a trained naturalist as Inspector, the local gamewarden of the Province of Quebec, and a crew of two men. The Quebecwarden would be paid by the Province. The men and boat, in view of thelarger size of the boat and the greater expenditure of fuel, would be, say, $6 a day, instead of $5, which, for 4 months, would mean $720. TheInspector's salary and the incidental expenses of the service would makeup the $5, 000. The Province would pay the cost of punishing offenders. Fines should be divided between the Province and the men who effect thearrests. 

5. One necessary expense would be officially warning the Newfoundlandersand other depredators through their own press. 

6. Arrange co-operation with the Dominion Fisheries Protection Serviceand Dominion Government telegraph line; also with the ProvincialGovernment, which would naturally be glad to have red-handed offendersconsigned to it for punishment. The Commission's boats might be veryuseful in giving information to the Fisheries Protection Service, and_vice versa_. All conservation telegrams should be free. 

7. Forbid all outsiders to take eggs or young birds, or to shootanything before the 1st of September, or to shoot after that without alicense. 

8. Allow genuine residents of the Canadian Labrador to take ducks' andgulls' eggs up to the 1st of June, and murres', auks' and puffins' eggsup to the 15th of June. Allow them to take young birds only in case ofsickness: (gull broth is the local equivalent of chicken broth). Allowthem to shoot after the 1st of September without a license. Theconditions of the coast require these exceptions, which will notendanger the bird life there. 

9. Establish one bird sanctuary on the inshore islands between Fond auFecteau and Whale Head East, and another on the inshore islands roundYankee Harbour (Wapitagun). 

10. These islands are favourite haunts of the American eider("sea-duck", "metik", _Somateria dresseri_. )

Perhaps the Northern or Greenland eider (_Somateria mollissimaborealis_) might also be induced to concentrate there. There seems to beno reason why an eider-down industry should not be built up by the endof the five years. The eider ought to be specially protected all the wayup to the Pilgrims, which are only 100 miles below Quebec. The Provincemight do this from Natashquan west. 

11. Begin by protecting all birds except the Great Blackback Gull("Saddleback", _Larus marinus_) which is very destructive to other birdlife. Let its eggs and young be taken at all times; but prevent adultbirds from being shot before the 1st of September, so as not to starvethe helpless young to death. When other species become really noxious itwill be time enough to treat them in the same way. As a rule, the harmdone by birds popularly but falsely supposed to live on food fishes, andby birds of prey, is grossly exaggerated. Birds and beasts of prey oftendo good service in keeping up a breed by killing off the weaklings. 

12. It would be well worth while to keep the Inspector on for the eightmonths between the 1st of September, 1913, and the 1st of May, 1914, sothat he and the Provincial warden might make a thorough investigation ofconditions all the year round, inland as well as on the coast, and ofthe mammals as well as of the birds. One man from each of the fivelocal boats and two men from the Inspector's boat would make sevenassistants already trained in conservation. They would have to be paidenough to counterbalance their strong desire for the rare but sometimesrelatively enormous profits of "furring". Perhaps $50 a man a monthwould do, the men to find themselves in everything, as during thesummer. This, for seven men for eight months, would be $2, 800. Theincidental expenses and Inspector's salary would bring the total up to$5, 000. The Inspector cannot be too good a man. He should be a goodleader as well as a trained naturalist. The Province should send him thebest warden it can find, to act as his chief assistant. After a year'swork, afloat and ashore, in summer and winter, with birds and mammals, he ought to be able to make a comprehensive and unbiassed report, which, by itself, would repay the Commission for introducing conservation intosuch a suitable area. Zoogeographic maps and charts would be anindispensable part of this report. 

 * * * * *

To sum up:--

I beg to propose that the Commission should bring the Canadian Labradorunder conservation by protecting bird life on the coast for a term offive years, as an experimental investigation, and by examining, for oneyear, the whole question of the birds and mammals, inland as well as onthe seabord, and in winter as well as summer. The cost of the firstwould be $5, 000 a year for five years = $25, 000. The cost of the secondwould be $5, 000 for one year only. The total cost would be $30, 000. 

I would never have ventured to suggest this plan to the Commission if Ihad not been encouraged by one of your own most valued members, DrRobertson. But as soon as he told me what your powers were I saw clearlythat, in this particular case, the Commission and the Canadian Labradorwere each exactly suited to the other. 

Under all these circumstances I have no hesitation in making thestrongest possible appeal for action before it is too late. The time hascome when the seabird life must be either made or marred for ever. And Iwould ask you to remember what seabird conservation means down there. Itmeans fresh food, the only kind the people ever get, apart from fish. Itmeans new business, if the eiders are once made safe in sanctuaries; forwe now import our eider down from points outside of Canada. And it meansthe quickening of every human interest, once you encourage the people tojoin you in this excellently practical form of "NeighbourhoodImprovement". 

There is another and very important point, which I discussed atconsiderable length in my _Address_, but to which I return here, becauseit can only be settled by a body of men, who, like this Commission, arenational trustees. This point is that certain parts of Labrador arebound to become ideal public playgrounds, if their wild life is onlysaved in time. The common conception of Labrador as being inaccessiblyremote is entirely wrong. It is accessible all round a coast line of3000 miles at the proper season and with proper care; and its vastpeninsula lies straight between the British Islands and our own NorthWest. So there is nothing absurd in expecting people to come to Labradorto-morrow when they are going to Spitzbergen, far north of the ArcticCircle to-day. Of course, Spitzbergen enjoys an invincible advantage atpresent, as its wild life is being carefully preserved. But onceLabrador is put under conservation the odds will be reversed. And I whatis true of Labrador in general is much truer still of the CanadianLabrador. Here is a country which is actually south of London, which isonly 2000 miles from England, 1000 from New York, and 500 from Quebec;which stands beside one of the most frequented of ocean highways; andwhich has a labyrinth of islands, a maze of rivers, and an untamedhinterland, all formed by Nature for wild "zoos", preserves and openhunting grounds. And here, too, all over the civilized world, arecity-bound men, turning more and more to Nature for health andrecreation, and willing to spend increasingly large sums for what theyseek and find. Surely, it is only the common sense of statesmanship tobring this country and those men together, in the near future, underconditions which are best for both, by making the Canadian Labrador anattractive land of life and not a hopelessly repellant land of death. 

One good, long look ahead to-day, and immediate action following, willbring the No-Man's-Land of the Canadian Labrador into its rightful placewithin the fellowship of the Province and Dominion. You will never findcause for vain regret. There is a sound basis of material value in theproducts of the coast already; and material value is always increased byconservation. But there is more than material value involved. We stillhave far too much wanton destruction of wild life in Canada, not onlyamong those who have ignorantly grown up to it, but among the well-to-doand presumably well-educated sham sportsmen who go into any unprotectedwilds simply to indulge their lust of slaughter to the full. Both theseclasses will be stopped in their abominations and shown a better way;for whenever man is taught a lesson in conservation he rises to a higherplane in his attitude towards all his humbler fellow-beings, andeventually becomes a sportsman-naturalist and true lover of the wilds. 

Then, but not till then, he will see such a drama of Creation along theCanadian Labrador as the whole world can never show elsewhere. On theone hand lies the illimitable past, a past which actually existed beforethe earliest of living creatures: on the other, the promise of a greathuman future. The past is in the hills, the true, the only "everlastinghills of time"; for they are of the old, the immeasurably old, azoicrock of the Laurentians, which forms the roots of other mountains, andwhich here alone appears to-day, on the face of a young Earth, the sameas at the birth of Life itself. The future lies within the ships thatsail the offing of these hills, crowded with those hosts of immigrationwho are so eager to become a part of what may be a mighty nation. Andthere, between and round the ships and hills, in sea and sky and on theland, our kindred of the wild are linking these vastly different agesclose together in what should be a present paradise. Shall one, short, heedless generation break that whole chain of glorious life and makethat paradise a desert?