Nature's hnprovement: Wildlife, Conservation, and Conflict in Quebec, 1850-1914 Darcy Ingram, Department of History, McGill University, Montreal February 2007 A thesis submitted to Mc Gill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy © Darcy Ingram 2007 Library and Bibliothèque et 1+1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l'édition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Canada Canada Your file Votre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-32298-7 Our file Notre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-32298-7 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant à la Bibliothèque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par télécommunication ou par l'Internet, prêter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des thèses partout dans loan, distribute and sell th es es le monde, à des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non­ sur support microforme, papier, électronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriété du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protège cette thèse. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. ln compliance with the Canadian Conformément à la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privée, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont été enlevés de cette thèse. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. ••• Canada Nature's Improvement: Wildlife, Conservation, and Conflict in Quebec, 1850-1914 Abstract This dissertation presents a new perspective on the history of conservation in North America. In contrast to historiography that locates conservation-oriented approaches to the North American environrnent as the product of late-nineteenth-century concerns within Canada and the United States, this study links wildlife conservation in Quebec directly to longstanding European land tenure, estate management, and associational strategies. Through a range of materials inc1uding state documents, associational records and personal and family papers, 1 show how advocates of fish and game protection in the province drew heavily on Old World customs and traditions, particularly those of British Iandowners, who displayed in their varied social, economic, and political commitments an ongoing engagement with improvement. These 'patrician sensibilities,' 1 argue, formed the basis of the regulatory system that developed in Quebec during the period 1850-1914, first on the remote salmon rivers of the north shore and Gaspé peninsula, and by the First World War on the bulk of the province's best and most easily accessible hunting and fishing territories. In addition to the regulatory strategies that developed during this period, the dissertation deals with forms and limits of resistance on the part of aboriginal and non-aboriginal subsistence, commercial, and sport hunters and fishers. The dissertation's major contribution lies in its demonstration of the longstanding patterns that underpinned the development of conservation strategies in North America. Class and gender are central to the project, and it also has important implications for our understanding of civil society and state formation. 1 Abstract Cette thèse propose une nouvelle perspective de l'histoire de la conservation en Amérique du Nord. Cette étude démontre les liens entre les stratégies de conservation de la faune du Québec et les traditions européennes de régime foncier, de gestion du territoire et de vie associative. Cette démonstration se démarque d'une majorité d'ouvrages sur l'histoire du mouvement conservationniste au Canada et aux États Unis où l'on situe l'origine de ce mouvement en Amérique même. En effet, l'examen de sources primaires de différents types (documents étatiques, archives d'associations privées, papiers de familles) révèle que les partisans de la protection de la faune s'inspiraient grandement des pratiques européennes. Les grands propriétaires terriens britanniques furent un modèle particulièrement important à cause de leur engagement de longue date envers l'amélioration du territoire. Ces « sensibilités patriciennes» sont à la base même du système de régulation de la faune au Québec de 1850 à 1914. Ce système se met d'abord en place dans les rivières de la Côte-Nord et de la péninsule gaspésienne. Au début de la Première Guerre mondiale, quasiment tous les meilleurs territoires de chasse et de pêche du Québec sont sous l'emprise de ce régime. Au delà des stratégies de régulation, cette thèse se penche sur les formes de résistance émanant des pêcheurs et des chasseurs autochtones et non-autochtones. La contribution majeure de cette thèse est de relier le mouvement conservationniste nord-américain à la tradition européenne. Les catégories de classe et de genre sont au centre de cette enquête, et ses principaux résultats nourrissent aussi la recherche actuelle sur la formation de la société civile ainsi que sur la formation de l'État. ii Acknowledgments The debts one accumulates during the course of a project such as this are enormous. A four-year doctoral fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council gave me the stable financial support 1 needed to see this dissertation through. 1 was able to pursue research outside Montreal with the aid of a Mc Gill Social Sciences and Humanities Research Grant. A St Andrew' s Society of Montreal scholarship and the McGill University history department's Huntly Macdonald Sinclair Dissertation Fellowship helped at key times to keep the wolf from the door, and teaching assistantships in the History department and the McGill School of Environment provided flexible work opportunities in a variety of stimulating academic contexts. A number of individuals and institutions have provided financial, academic, and moral support. Staff at the Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa at the Quebec City branch of the Archives nationales du Quebec (now the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec) were always of great assistance. At the Cascapedia River Museum, director Mary Robertson offered me her knowledge of the river and its history, and pointed me to a number of important sources. Alexander Reford, historian and director of the Reford Gardens/ Jardins Métis in Grand-Métis, Quebec, was generous with his time, and opened to me his extensive collection of materials on George Stephen and the Reford family; 1 learned much while visiting the site of Stephen's former fishing lodge about the lei sure and managerial activities of Stephen and his contemporaries. Course work and comprehensive studies under the direction of Elizabeth Elboume helped to ground my work in its British and imperial contexts. Donald Fyson helped me to make sense of judicial sources and the legal history behind the nineteenth century's fish and iii game protection movement, and put me up during research stints in Quebec City. Mike Rodgers proofread my final draft and provided comments. A good deal of my thinking about Quebec society and environment has been influenced by fellow graduate students Darin Kinsey and Elizabeth Kirkland. Only after spending a good deal of time searching the province for sources did 1 discover how many of the materials for this project were underfoot. McGill University holds a wealth of sources on elite society in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Quebec. Staff at the Mc Gill University Rare Books and Special Collections Division, the Government Documents Division, and the SeriaIs and Microform Services Reading Room of the Humanities and Social Sciences Library were always keen to help. At the OsIer Library of the History of Medicine, Pamela Miller fielded my questions about doctors, sport, and conservation. McCord Museum archivist François Cartier responded with enthusiasm to my project; together we discovered the richness of the museum's collection regarding the history of wildlife conservation in Quebec. Throughout this time the staff of the history department, in particular Jody Anderson, Georgii Mikula, and Colleen Parish, helped me to negotiate administrative and other perils of graduate life. Two groups in particular have proved central to this project. The environmental history network Quelques arpents de neige and its participants continue to broaden my approach to history and to the environment. Fellow graduate students Louis-Raphaël Pelletier and Dan Rueck have been key to this group's success. 1 owe my biggest institutional debt to the Montreal History Group. In addition to regular economic support in the form of summer employment and a stipend following the end of my SSHRC iv funding, the Group and its members have shaped my approach to social history, to the history of Quebec, and to the