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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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