im and
his heirs; yet it goes somewhere else. When a nation allows any one
kind of natural resource to be squandered it must suffer a real,
positive loss; yet substitutes of another kind can generally be found.
But when wild life is squandered it does not go elsewhere, like
squandered money; it cannot possibly be replaced by any substitute, as
some inorganic resources are: it is simply an absolute, dead loss,
gone beyond even the hope of recall.

Now, we have seen verifiable facts enough to prove that Labrador, out
of its total area of eleven Englands, is not likely to be
advantageously exploitable over much more than the area of one England
for other purposes than the growth and harvesting of wild life by land
and water. How are these ten Englands to be brought under
conservation, before it is too late, in the best interests of the five
chief classes of people who are concerned already or will be soon? Of
course, the same individual may belong to more than one class. I
merely use these divisions to make sure of considering all sides of
the question. The five great interests are those of--1. Food. 2.
Business. 3. The Indians and Eskimos. 4. Sport, and 5. The
Zoophilists, by which I mean all people interested in wild-animal
life, from zoologists to tourists.

1. FOOD.--The resident population is so sparse that there is not one
person for every 20,000 acres; and most of these people live on the
coast. Consequently, the vast interior could not be used for food
supplies in any case. Besides, ever since the white man occupied the
coast, the immediate hinterland, which used to be full of life, has
become more and more barren. Fish is plentiful enough. A few small
crops of common vegetables could be grown in many places, and outside
supplies are becoming more available. So the toll of birds and mammals
taken by the present genuine residents for necessary food is not a
menace, if taken in reason. In isolated places in the Gulf, like
Harrington, the Provincial law might safely be relaxed, so as to allow
the eggs of ducks and gulls to be taken up to the 5th of June and
those of murres, auks and puffins up to the 15th. Flight birds might
also be shot at any time on the outside capes and islands. There is a
local unwritten law down there--"No guns inside, after the 1st of
June"--and it has been kept for twenty years. Similar relaxations
might be allowed in other places, in genuine cases of necessity. But
the egging and out-of-se