WCP6760

[1]

59, GRANDE ALLÉE,

QUEBEC.

21 Sept 1911

to A.R. Wallace

Esq^re

F.R.S &c

Dear Sir —-

I am taking the great liberty of bringing to your notice a mere amateur's address on "Animal Sanctuaries in Labrador"¹ which has just been published by the Commission of Conservation here. It is under separate cover, [1 word illeg.].

Though my work as an author is with very different subject-matter I have always [2] delighted in natural history and I have been an equally delighted reader of your books ever since I was a boy at school in England in the [18]'80's.

It is simply infuriating to see the sheer wanton destruction that is going on here. As nobody seems to be trying to see the subject as a whole I ventured to step into the breach and —- with what result[?], I don't know. I have often sailed and paddled about the Lower St. Lawrence, and been out with the natives, and so seen things from the inside.

[3] There is, on the whole, much less than the truth in my address. I could have made it much stronger. The Nascaupees[?]² have been vitiated by the whites and are the most shiftless and destructive Indians we have. Then, the members of the Audubon societies³ who get the collecting craze are almost as bad as the Newfoundland fishermen. The Director of Education in New York wrote to me reporting one "Scientific gentleman" who took 369 clutches of eggs this summer "for scientific purposes"! Politics are another trouble. No one who votes for the Provincial or Dominion party in power is ever punished.

[4] Curiously enough I got very strong letters of encouragement from the two men most influential on such subjects, in the public eye, one on each side of the line, both on the same day. Mr Roosevelt,⁴ who, as you doubtless know, was chiefly instrumental in establishing 34 sanctuaries during his term is very enthusiastic about the possibilities of Labrador. Lord Grey,⁵ whom I have often talked the matter over with, is equally so; and has promised to take the first opportunity of saying something pertinent in public.

Mr Roosevelt quoted [5]⁶ I have so little time that I cannot hope to do much. But by collecting information from all quarters and making a digest of it for the Conservation Commission⁷ in 1912, I hope to be able to hand over to them the first sketch of materials for a working hypothesis.

I beg to thank you for many happy hours spent in the company of your books, and to remain[?], with the greatest respect, faithfully yours William Wood [signature]

(L^t Colonel, R.O., C.M.)