In some localities it is in great need of protection. In southern British Columbia, the Indians, who are not amenable to the laws governing the white man, but are protected by treaty rights secured by the Dominion government, kill right and left with impunity. In Canada, even more than in the United States, solicitude for the noble red man works great injury to all our game animals. In the early days, from motives of self-interest, the Indian may have been moderate in his killing, but, having abandoned his archaic weapons in favor of modern fire-arms, he is now an unmitigated butcher.
The Kootenays on the upper Columbia and the Stoneys on the east face of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, are game murderers and it is the boast of the latter that no game can live where they hunt. In the interest of game protection in British Columbia, it is greatly to be regretted that the enforcement of stringent laws cannot be extended to the Indians. Curiously enough, many persons, who would ordinarily be friendly to game protection, have become so interested in the natives, that they advocate hunting privileges for Indians which they deny to the white man, under the mistaken impression that the Indian kills only what he needs. The strange delusion has recently led to an attempt by a benevolent United States Senator to repeal the game laws for Alaska and leave that great game region to the mercy of the native and meat hunter.
SALE OF GAME HEADS.
The hunting of the Stoney Indians has been somewhat discouraged by a wise law recently enacted in the Northwest Provinces, prohibiting the sale of game heads. This law is especially beneficial to sheep, since the demand for heads of large rams has been steadily increasing. Oreamnos has not suffered greatly from head hunting, as its horns do not offer much of a trophy except when needed to complete a collection of American game animals. The marketing of game heads cannot be too strongly condemned by genuine hunters and by those interested in the protection of wild animal life.
INTRODUCTION OF FOREIGN ANIMALS.
In this connection a word should be said about a proposition to establish chamois in the Rocky Mountains. Efforts, to introduce European game, instead of protecting the native American animals, are constantly cropping out. Why anyone should prefer a chamois to the far finer native animal is somewhat of a mystery. Nature has provided for every portion of our country, mammals, birds and fish well adapted to the needs of the locality, and the introduction of foreign animals simply means, in case they survive, the crowding out of some native form.
In the East the mountain goat never can be more than an object of temporary curiosity, as he cannot long survive the rigors of our Atlantic summer. A number of young goat have been captured in British Columbia for exhibition in the New York Zoological Park, but while very docile, and taking readily to the milk of domestic ewes, they all died before shipment except the four now on exhibition at the Park. The proper place for the exhibition and breeding of mountain goat is in the Canadian National Park at Banff, Alberta, where there is an unsurpassed opportunity to secure and breed not only goat, but also mountain sheep, bison and even moose in their native environment.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.
The writer desires to acknowledge his indebtedness for assistance in the preparation of the above article to Mr. Charles Arthur Moore, Jr., to Mr. Andrew J. Stone, to Dr. J. A. Allen, to Mr. Charles H. Townsend, to Mr. Wilfrid H. Osgood, and to members of the Geological Survey, notably Mr. A. H. Sylvester.