i8o CAMP-FIRES IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES 



Yellowstone Park, and the very few wild ones immedi- 

 ately around that reservation. 



For several reasons, I am totally opposed to the trap- 

 ping of grizzlies for their skins, to poisoning them, and 

 to permitting any hunter to kill more than one grizzly 

 per year. In other words, I think the time has come to 

 protect this animal, at least everywhere south of lati- 

 tude 54°. As a state asset, every live, wild grizzly of 

 adult size is worth from $300 to $500, and as a hunter's 

 grand object, it is worth much more. The trapping 

 and poisoning of this noble animal should be prohibited, 

 at once, throughout the whole United States and south- 

 ern British Columbia; and this prohibition should stand 

 forever. It is folly for Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming or 

 New Mexico, to permit the killing of a five-hundred- 

 dollar silver-tip for a twenty-dollar skin; and every 

 guide should know this without being told. Moreover, 

 the slaughter of half a dozen grizzlies by one man in a 

 single season is far worse for the big-game interests of 

 America than the killing of that number of bull elk. 



Eliminate the bears from the Canadian Rockies, and 

 a considerable percentage of the romance and wild 

 charm which now surrounds them like a halo, will be 

 gone. So long as grizzlies remain to make awesome 

 tracks and dig " gophers," just so long will brain-weary 

 men take the long trail to find them, climb mountains 

 until they are half-dead of precious physical fatigue, and 

 whether they kill grizzlies or not, they will return like 

 new men, vowing that they have had the grandest of all 

 outings. 



