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Animal Sanctuaries in Labrador - An Address Presented by Lt.-Colonel William Wood, F.R.S.C. before - the Second Annual Meeting of the Commission of Conservation at Quebec, - January, 1911 by William (William Charles Henry) Wood
page 10 of 36 (27%)
turning a land from green to black. Except in the southwest and a few
isolated spots, the country cannot be farmed. At the same time, the
urban population must have communications with the outside world, by
which regular supplies can come in. This will make the settlers
independent of wild life for necessary food; and wild life, in any
case, would be too precarious if exploited in the usual way. The
traders in wild-animal products, as well as the naturalists, sportsmen
and tourists, are interested in keeping the rest of the country well
stocked. So that, one way and another, the human and wild-animal life
will not conflict, as they do where farming creates a widespread rural
population, or wanton destruction of forests ruins land and water, and
human and animal life have to suffer for it afterwards. All the
different places required for business spheres of influence in the
near future, added to all the business spheres of the present, can
hardly exceed the area of one whole England, especially if all
suitable areas are not thrown open simultaneously to lumbering, at the
risk of the usual bad results. So there will remain ten other
Englands, admirably fitted, in all respects, to grow wild life in the
most beneficial abundance, and quite able to do so indefinitely, if a
reasonable amount of general protection is combined with well-situated
sanctuaries.

The fauna is much more richly varied than people who think of
Labrador as nothing but an arctic barren are inclined to suppose. The
fisheries have been known for centuries, especially the cod, which has
a prerogative right to the simple word "fish." There are herring and
lobsters in the Gulf, plenty of salmon and trout in most of the
rivers, winninish in all the tributary waters of the Hamilton, as well
as in lake St. John, whitefish in the lakes, and so forth. Then, the
stone-carrying chub is one of the most interesting creatures in the
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