Supplement to Animal Sanctuaries in Labrador by William Wood
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William Wood >> Supplement to Animal Sanctuaries in Labrador
In the _Birds of Labrador_, 1907, Boston Society of Natural
History, by Mr. Glover, Mr. Allen and myself, we called
especial attention to the great destruction of life that has
gone on and is still going on there, and we suggested the
protection of the eiders for their down, as is done in
Norway, instead of their extermination, the present course.
Commander W. Wakeham, of the Department of Marine, says:
No one can question the desirability of having certain areas
set apart, where wild animals may find asylum, and rest....
A few years ago, from some unusual cause, the woodland
caribou, in great numbers, visited that part of Labrador,
east of Forteau, and along down as far as St. Charles. A
large number were there killed by the white settlers--but
this was a solitary, and exceptional year. The Indians who
hunt in the interior of Labrador undoubtedly do kill a large
number of these caribou; but, when we consider the great
extent of country over which these deer migrate, compared
with the comparatively small number of Indians--and there is
a steadily decreasing number--I can hardly believe that
there is much fear of their ever exterminating these deer.
Then, could we possibly prevent these Indians from hunting
the deer wherever they meet them? I hardly think we could.
The barren-ground caribou are not hunted to any extent by
whites. During the month of August, the Eskimo of the Ungava
peninsula, as well as those in Baffin island, resort to
certain fords, or narrows where these caribou usually pass
at the beginning of the fall migration. They kill
considerable numbers--rather for the skins as clothing, than
for food. But the Eskimo are few in number, and I cannot
conceive that there is any fear of these caribou ever being
greatly reduced in number by these native hunters. Any one
who has ever met a herd of barren-ground caribou, and seen
the countless thousands of them, could hardly conceive of
their ever being exterminated. Nor would they be if we had
to deal only with the native hunters. But, with our
experience of what happened to the buffalo when the white
man took up the slaughter, we must take precaution in time.
Up to the present, very few white men have penetrated any
distance into the interior of the Labrador peninsula, and I
do not see that they are very likely to, in the near future.
But we never can tell. A few years ago we would have said
the same of the Yukon region, so that it would be a wise
precaution to have set apart a considerable section of the
Labrador, in the interior, as a sanctuary.... It would
perhaps be better to have two regions set apart, one near
the Saguenay country and another nearer the Atlantic coast.
We have, however, to consider the fact that sanctuaries
will be of no value unless they are well guarded.
In the case of the birds the conditions are bad; the
destruction on the Labrador is horrible to contemplate. The
outer islands were scoured by crews from foreign vessels,
and whole loads of eggs carried off. There has not been much
of this done in recent years. There can he no doubt that, if
certain of the larger and less inhabited islands were set
apart, and carefully protected, the birds would return to
them. I believe that owing to the constant way in which the
birds--eider ducks, certain of the divers, gulls, &c., were
disturbed, on their natural and original nesting places,
they have changed their habits; and, instead of nesting on
the islands and by the sea, they have moved to the shores of
the interior lakes. You see flocks of young birds in the
fall; they have come from the interior, as they were not
hatched out on the islands as they used to be.
The destruction of geese and curlew does not take place on
the Labrador. These birds are not disturbed on their nesting
grounds; but, to the south and west when they are passing to
their winter haunts. Geese are found feeding on the
hill-sides, on the most distant and northern islands--as far
north as any of our explorers have gone. The first birds
Sverdrup met as he was coming south, in the early spring,
were wild geese. These birds are not disturbed on their
breeding grounds. The Eskimo do not meddle with them. In the
same way caribou are found feeding about the shores of
Hudson bay and strait. Like the geese, they feed on berries
about the hill sides. I have shot them at the mouth of
Churchill river, and near cape Digges in August, when they
were very fat--so fat that it is said that, on falling on
hard ground, they would burst open; though this did not
actually happen in my case. I certainly think that it would
be a grand thing to have certain groups of islands--or even
certain sections of coast--set apart as bird sanctuaries.
Your paper deals entirely with conditions in Labrador. There
is, however, another 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_, and if this were the
case in the chief civilized countries of Europe and America,
the whole trade would at once cease and the poor birds be
left in peace.
You have, however, treated the subject very carefully and
thoroughly, and I hope your views will be soon carried
out....
I am glad to hear that Mr. Roosevelt is a reader of the
"World of Life." My own interest is more especially in the
preservation of adequate areas of the glorious tropical and
equatorial forests, with their teeming and marvellous forms
of life.
Numerous other letters from all parts of the world expressing
appreciation of the _Address_ have been received, the correspondents
expressing strong approval of the effort to establish Animal
Sanctuaries in Labrador. The names of some of the correspondents are
given herewith:
Sir Robert Baden-Powell, London; Prof. H.T. Barnes, Montreal; Julien
Corbett, London; Rudyard Kipling; Lord Stamfordham, London; Sir James
LeMoine, Quebec; J.M. Macoun, Ottawa; Henry F. Osborn, New York;
Madison Grant, New York.
_Note._--As a postscript I might add that the owner of part of a very
desirable little archipelago, not far from the Saguenay, has already
offered to give the property outright if a suitable sanctuary can be
made out of the whole. This is all the more encouraging because such a
gift involves the refusal of an offer from a speculative purchaser.
May others be moved to do the same!
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote A: Mr. Wallace refers to feathers like egrets, not the
permissable kinds, like ostrich plumes.]