protection of its water courses that he urges upon the Legislature the necessity of taking action without delay, as each year's devastation of forest land is making more difficult the attainment of the State's object.

No such obstacles stand in the way of the creation of the proposed Park in Ontario at the present time, but if the project be delayed the future may bring with it just such complications as those existing in New York. The way is clear now, and now would seem the time to act.

ENDS TO BE ATTAINED BY THE RESERVATION.

In their consideration of the ends to be attained by the establishment of the Reservation and Park the commissioners have enumerated six, which will be found numbered below, with remarks on each tending to explain their necessity and the results which may reasonably be expected to follow their adoption:

MAINTENANCE OF WATER SUPPLY.

1. The preservation of the streams, lakes and water-courses in the Park, and especially of the head waters of those rivers which have their sources therein, viz:

The South river, flowing northerly into Lake Nipissing;

The east branch of the north branch and the north branch of the south branch of the Muskoka river, which empties into Georgian bay;

The Madawaska and Petawawa rivers, flowing southeasterly into the Ottawa;

The little Nipissing, a branch of the Petawawa ;

The Amable du Fond, flowing northerly into the Mattawa, a tributary of the Ottawa;

And several other and smaller streams which flow into one or other of these rivers.

There is probably not to be found elsewhere within the Province a tract of country which in the same limited space gives rise to so many important streams, and it is a fortunate circumstance that this tract exists not only in a state practically unimpaired so far as the maintenance of these streams is concerned, but also in a condition which enables it to be set aside as a Reservation of the kind proposed at a minimum of expense and trouble. The principal lakes may be named as follows: Great Opeongo, McDougal and Shirley on the Madawaska; Cedar lake, lake Lavieille, Trout lake, Big lake, lake Le Muir, Burnt lake, White Trout lake and Misty lake on the Petawawa; Island, Canoe and Smoke lakes on the Muskoka, and Tea, Manitou and Kioshoqui on the Amable du Fond. Besides these are Whitefish, Two Rivers, Cache, Source, Otter Slide, Green, Rock, Merchants', Crow and Mink lakes, and many hundreds of others, varying in size from considerable bodies of waters to mere ponds. In fact the region is one of a multiplicity of creeks and streams, forming in their progress every here and there diminutive lakes, many of them, surrounded as they are by the over-arching forest, extremely beautiful.

The larger lakes are situated directly upon the several water systems within the Park, of which they respectively form part, and there is scarcely a lake of any size which is not connected by stream or portage with some leading chain of waters, the consequence being to render the whole area within the Park easily accessible by canoe, the only means of locomotion of which the nature of the case admits. Swamps are of course numerous, and for some of the purposes of this Reservation it is well that they should be. They are divided, however, by much larger areas of drier land, of every description of surface, hill, valley and level land, covered generally with woods often of great beauty, and calculated to be, if the cutting were periodic and discriminating, of more or less permanent commercial value. For many reasons, hereafter more fully stated, the preservation of these streams and lakes with their surroundings in as far as possible their original condition is most desirable.

PRESERVATION OF A PRIMEVAL FOREST.

2. The maintenance of the Park in a state of nature as far as possible, having regard to existing interests; and the preservation of native forests therein and of their indigenous woods as nearly as practicable.

The progress of settlement, the demand for wood, and the occasional ravages of fire have by their united operation throughout older Ontario almost effaced the remembrance of the beautiful woodland scenery which once covered the land. An object of the establishment of this Reservation should be, while not interfering with land valuable for other purposes, to retain a portion valueless for those, but most valuable for that of preserving a part of the country in its original beauty of forest, lake and river.

Many descriptions of trees, both useful and ornamental, once common here, are now rapidly becoming scarce. Many kinds of wild flowers and shrubs of use for medicinal and other purposes, formerly in great numbers ornamenting and diversifying our forest groves, are almost forgotten where once they abounded. Throughout such a Reservation many of these might be preserved; others, fit for the climate, might be added.

The result would be the perpetuation of a large district in its original and sylvan state, affording alike pleasure to the visitor and knowledge to the student a district pregnant of pleasing remembrances of the past, and affording much in many ways useful in the present.

PROTECTION OF BIRDS AND ANIMALS.

3. To protect the fish, insectivorous and other birds, game and fur-bearing animals therein, and to encourage their growth and increase.

In other countries fish and game have been long and extensively preserved; but it has been by means of stringent regulations on the part of proprietors of large estates, or in royal forests; and the result, while affording benefit to a class,

deprives the people at large of any share therein. In America, where game and wild animals once existed in great abundance, and where the lakes and rivers were stocked with fish superior to any now obtainable, such regulations were at first thought unnecessary, and what was wild was considered the common property of all. But it was at length seen that the end would be the extinction of the game altogether. Of that which in other lands legislation had almost deprived the masses, here, by permitting the carelessness or rapacity of individuals, the masses were much more effectually depriving themselves. It was found necessary, if any fish or game were to be left in the country, to adopt some method of preservation, and regulations as to close seasons were adopted in many parts and enforced with greater or less severity.

In Ontario the same course of events has occurred, and game is now scarce, fur-bearing animals yet more scarce, throughout settled Ontario; while as to insectivorous birds, which it is of the greatest importance to preserve, now, owing to the use of guns by boys and young men who have been taught to find amusement in wanton and useless destruction of life, our woods and fields, once vocal with songsters, are destitute of note of bird or flash of wing.

As has been said, the Reservation yet possesses many varieties of wild animals and fish. Let us suppose that within its limits protection is extended to these until their increasing numbers demand occasional reduction, that wolves be destroyed, the increase of insectivorous birds encouraged, and that of those injurious to agriculture checked. We should then have at least one district in Ontario where the harmless and useful tenants of the forest and the stream would find refuge from the careless cruelty and unreasoning greed which in some localities have almost deprived them of the opportunity of existence, and where they can find the protection which, were humanity less inconsiderate and more grateful, they would long since everywhere have found.

It is almost incredible with what ferocity and wastefulness such animals as the moose have been hunted and killed in the past. In the spring of 1887, to give an example, the carcasses of not less than sixty moose were found in this district, the animals having been killed for their skins alone. During the preceding winter, between lake Traverse on the Petawawa and Bissett's station on the C. P. R., a distance of a little over twenty miles, seventy moose were slaughtered after Christmas. If one-half of these were females and if they even averaged only one calf each, here was game enough destroyed in one season to stock the Park. Besides affording noble sport to the hunter, the moose is a valuable animal to the settler and the frontiersman, and it would be a pity to allow him to be exterminated like the buffalo of the western plains without at least affording him every opportunity of survival. A full-grown moose weighs upwards of 1,000 lb., and will dress 600 lb. of beef, while his skin will make twenty pairs of

moccasins, which readily sell at two dollars a pair. The Game Act has made it unlawful to kill any moose, elk, reindeer or caribou anywhere within the Province before the first day of November, 1895.

Of the fur-bearing animals, the beaver is by far the most valuable. On the shore of every lake in this district are to be found old beaver houses, and there is scarcely a brook in the whole territory on which at short intervals their abandoned dams may not be seen. Now one may travel for days there without seeing a single fresh beaver sign.

There are two reasons why this industrious and harmless animal should be preserved from destruction. First, because its skin furnishes us with one of our richest and most valuable furs; and, second, because from its habits it is perhaps the greatest natural conservator of water. It is probably within the mark to say that were this region again stocked with beaver as it once was, there would be in every township at least a hundred dams and beaver ponds, each with its family or families of beaver, exclusive of the large numbers in the lakes and rivers where no dam building is necessary. In this way the water area would be increased by perhaps a fifth, a very important circumstance from the lumberman's point of view. The present law provides that neither beaver, otter nor fisher shall be taken or killed anywhere in the Province before the first day of November, 1897.

The beaver is a most prolific creature, and if left undisturbed the progeny of a single couple would, in a few years, stock a large extent of country. The young beavers remain in the same house as the parents until they are a year old when they strike off in couples for themselves, and either build a new house on the same pond or select a site on some other creek and there erect a dam and house. In a few weeks the dry swamp or marsh is transformed into a lake, and the stock of provisions, consisting of a pile of saplings and brush, for winter use, is laid up beside the house, only a few of the limbs showing above the surface of the water. In the interior of the house a dry, warm nest is made, where they remain all winter. Going out at the call of hunger to the pile of provisions, they drag a piece up out of the water and eat the bark which, together with the roots of aquatic plants, is their only food, thrusting the pole back again into the water. Here they remain until the long warm days of spring soften the ice, when cutting a hole in it they go out for a taste of fresh food. In the beginning of May they bring forth their young, which almost invariably consist the first year of two after which the average number is from four to six.

From this brief sketch it can readily be seen how quickly a large extent of territory can be stocked with these valuable creatures, if protected from destruction. The Reservation would, in fact, be a breeding ground for not only the moose, the deer and the beaver, but for all animals, fish and birds which the interests of the country render it desirable to preserve.

A FIELD FOR EXPERIMENTS IN FORESTRY.

4. To provide a field for experiments in and practice of systematic forestry upon a limited scale.

It is evident that, to acquire practical and reliable knowledge in this science so important to the future of Ontario, the evidence upon which future action is based had better be obtained from experiments conducted in our own country. While many valuable ideas can be obtained from observation of forestry as practised in Europe and other distant lands, the difference in climate, in the class of trees generally used, and the quality of labor to be procured, render the methods of obtaining success in forestry management, as practised elsewhere, so different from those practicable in Ontario, that any one who intelligently observes both becomes aware that information obtained there must be to some extent modified by experience here.

As to the class of experiments desirable, many of great probable value might be made, as soon as necessity shall justify their cost, which need in no case be large. To mention particular experiments, it may be remarked that it will be well to endeavor by such means to learn what trees, planted in existing forests can best continue these forests in value, what trees will flourish best when intermixed with other varieties, and which succeed better when surrounded by their own; whether the original forest should be greatly thinned before attempting to replace it, or whether any gaps therein can be advantageously refilled at once; what soils are best for different trees, what localities and exposures, and whether by streams or on higher ground, with many other questions yet unsolved which can only receive solution in the forest itself, a thing as yet little, if at all, attempted

in Ontario.

Attempts might also be made to solve by experiment (which, if fire be used, would need to be conducted with caution) the vexed question of the possibility of destroying the branches and tree tops left on the ground during the culling of a pine forest.

Where fire has, as is often the case, left large spaces of open ground, experiments might be tried to determine the proper method of commencing new plantations, and the kind of trees which, on certain soils, will answer best to succeed the forest when so destroyed.

The possibilities of useful experiment are, in fact, endless.

A PLACE OF HEALTH RESORT.

5. To serve as a sanitarium or place of health resort.

The inhabitants of Ontario have been often recommended, instead of visiting for the purposes of health or recreation the various summer resorts of other countries, to try a season in their own, and find whether in northern Ontario an air cannot be found more pure and more invigorating than in either Europe or the States.