Whaling, sealing and deep-sea fishing are Dominion and international
affairs; and whaling, at all events, is soon to engage the attention of
statesmen, experts and the public--let us hope, to some good end. The
inland birds and mammals from the St. Lawrence to Ungava now come under
the Province of Quebec; though no effective protection has ever reached
the Canadian Labrador. Beyond this, again, lies the Atlantic Labrador,
which is entirely under Newfoundland. So I would suggest that the
Commission should try a five-year experiment in the conservation of
seabird life along the Canadian Labrador, because this would not come
into overlapping contact with any other exercised authority, because it
is bound to be successful, because it will only cost a sum that should
be had for the asking, because it is most urgently pressing, and because
it can be begun at once, to the lasting advantage of all concerned.
The "Canadian Labrador" is the last remaining vestige of the
No-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 before
it. Fifty years ago the dividing line was at Seven Islands, 300 miles
below Quebec. To-day it runs just east of Natashquan and is a full 500
miles below.
There is no stranger country anywhere than this Canadian Labrador. Dr
Grenfell's Labrador, which has nothing to do with Canada, is known to
everyone. But the very existence of our own Labrador, with its 200
miles 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, but
increasing, population of 1200 souls. It lies on the north shore of the
Gulf, just inside the Straits of Belle Isle, and runs from Bradore in
the east to Kegashka in the west. Here, close beside the crowded track
of ocean liners, and well below the latitude of London, is by far the
most southerly arctic region in the world. It is a land of rock and
moss; for, except along the river valleys, there are neither grass nor
trees. No crops are grown or ever can be grown. There are no horses,
cattle, poultry, pigs or sheep. Reindeer are said to be coming. But
there are none at present. The only domestic animals are dogs, that howl
like wolves, but never bark. And yet it is a country which is rich, and
might he richer still, in fish and fur, and which seems formed by Nature
to be a perfect paradise of all that is most desirable in the wild life
of the north, especially in the seabirds that are now being done to
death among its countless archipelagoes.
Its natural features are not the only strange things in it. It is a
curiosity 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 by
educated whites, in any part of the self-governing Empire, where no man
has ever cast a single vote or ever had the right to cast one. The
electoral line stops short at Natashquan, 36 miles west of Kegashka. So
1200 good Canadians have no vote. They are dumb and their two
governments are deaf. They have bought their little holdings from the
Province; and they pay Canadian custom dues to the Dominion, on
everything they get from the Quebec truck traders or the Hudson Bay
posts, in exchange for their fish and fur. But they do not enjoy even
the elementary right of protection from depredation committed by men who
have no claim on Canada at all. Let me add that by this I do not mean
for one moment to abuse my friends the Newfoundlanders. A kindlier
people I have never met. Nor do I mean to abuse the Americans and Nova
Scotians who sometimes slink inside the three-mile limit. But I do mean
to draw attention to the regrettable fact that the absence of all
wild-life conservation is becoming ruinous to everyone concerned--even
to the exterminating Newfoundlanders, who are now making our shores as
bleak 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 are
good leaders in Dr Hare, the head of the medical mission; in the three
religious missions--Anglican, Presbyterian and Roman Catholic; and among
the principal fishermen, who are mostly Anglo- but partly
French-Canadian. What the coast needs is not coddling and charity but
conservation and protection against depredators from outside. The best
way to begin is to protect the seabirds. And the best body to do this is
the Commission of Conservation. The Province of Quebec has just put the
finishing touch to a great work by establishing an animal sanctuary in
the heart of the Laurentides National Park. It is also doing good work
by making the game laws more effective elsewhere. But, being dependently
human, it can hardly pass over the whole North Shore of voters in order
to give special protection to the little, voteless No-Man's-Land of the
Canadian Labrador; though immediate special protection is a very vital
concern to that most neglected part of Canada. The Dominion stops short
by water as decidedly as the Province does by land. So an ideal place is
left defenceless between the two, as if expressly made for the
Commission to conserve.
I know that the Commission cannot undertake any executive work of a
permanent character. But it can undertake an experimental investigation
for a term of years. And, here again, the Canadian Labrador offers a
perfect field. For if only five years' effective conservation is
extended to the bird life of that coast the whole situation will be
saved. I do not presume to lay down the law on the subject. But I would
venture to suggest that some such plan as the following would probably
be found quite effective at the very moderate cost of five thousand
dollars a year.
1. The residents to form their own "Neighbourhood Improvement
Association" under the Commission of Conservation.
2. The Commission to protect the bird life of the coast experimentally
for five years, from the 1st of May, 1913.
3. The 200 miles of coast, from Kegashka to Bradore, to be divided into
5 beats. One local boat and two local men to each beat, from the 1st of
May to the 1st of September, by contract, at $600 a boat = $3,000. Each
boat to have a motor capable of doing at least 6 knots an hour. Local
men are essential. Strangers, however good otherwise, would be lost in
that labyrinth of uncharted and unlighted islands. $2 a day a man is not
too much for these men, who would have to give up their whole time in
the busy season, the only season, in fact, when they make money, except
for the chance of "furring". $1 a day a boat is equally reasonable. The
five beats might be called the Romaine, Harrington, Tabatière,
Shekattika and Bradore.
4. A sixth boat should move about inspecting the whole coast during the
season. It should have a trained naturalist as Inspector, the local game
warden of the Province of Quebec, and a crew of two men. The Quebec
warden would be paid by the Province. The men and boat, in view of the
larger 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. The
Inspector's salary and the incidental expenses of the service would make
up the $5,000. The Province would pay the cost of punishing offenders.
Fines should be divided between the Province and the men who effect the
arrests.
5. One necessary expense would be officially warning the Newfoundlanders
and other depredators through their own press.
6. Arrange co-operation with the Dominion Fisheries Protection Service
and Dominion Government telegraph line; also with the Provincial
Government, which would naturally be glad to have red-handed offenders
consigned to it for punishment. The Commission's boats might be very
useful 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 shoot
anything before the 1st of September, or to shoot after that without a
license.
8. Allow genuine residents of the Canadian Labrador to take ducks' and
gulls' eggs up to the 1st of June, and murres', auks' and puffins' eggs
up to the 15th of June. Allow them to take young birds only in case of
sickness: (gull broth is the local equivalent of chicken broth). Allow
them to shoot after the 1st of September without a license. The
conditions of the coast require these exceptions, which will not
endanger the bird life there.
9. Establish one bird sanctuary on the inshore islands between Fond au
Fecteau and Whale Head East, and another on the inshore islands round
Yankee Harbour (Wapitagun).
10. These islands are favourite haunts of the American eider
("sea-duck", "metik", _Somateria dresseri_.)
Perhaps the Northern or Greenland eider (_Somateria mollissima
borealis_) might also be induced to concentrate there. There seems to be
no reason why an eider-down industry should not be built up by the end
of the five years. The eider ought to be specially protected all the way
up to the Pilgrims, which are only 100 miles below Quebec. The Province
might 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 bird
life. Let its eggs and young be taken at all times; but prevent adult
birds from being shot before the 1st of September, so as not to starve
the helpless young to death. When other species become really noxious it
will be time enough to treat them in the same way. As a rule, the harm
done by birds popularly but falsely supposed to live on food fishes, and
by birds of prey, is grossly exaggerated. Birds and beasts of prey often
do 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 eight
months between the 1st of September, 1913, and the 1st of May, 1914, so
that he and the Provincial warden might make a thorough investigation of
conditions all the year round, inland as well as on the coast, and of
the mammals as well as of the birds. One man from each of the five
local boats and two men from the Inspector's boat would make seven
assistants already trained in conservation. They would have to be paid
enough to counterbalance their strong desire for the rare but sometimes
relatively enormous profits of "furring". Perhaps $50 a man a month
would do, the men to find themselves in everything, as during the
summer. This, for seven men for eight months, would be $2,800. The
incidental 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 good
leader as well as a trained naturalist. The Province should send him the
best warden it can find, to act as his chief assistant. After a year's
work, 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 into
such a suitable area. Zoogeographic maps and charts would be an
indispensable part of this report.
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