American Big Game in its Haunts 



mountains. What has been so thoroughly accom- 

 plished will be sure to continue ; and, unless the sug- 

 gested refuges shall be established, there will soon be 

 no game to protect — a real loss to the country. 



It has long been customary for Western men of a 

 certain type to say that Eastern sportsmen are try- 

 ing to protect the game in order that they them- 

 selves may kill it, the implication being that they 

 wish to take it away from those living near it, and 

 who presumably have the greatest right to it. Talk 

 of this kind has no foundation in fact, as is shown by 

 the laws passed by the Western States, which often 

 demand heavy license fees from non-residents, and 

 hedge about their hunting with other restrictions. 

 Many Eastern sportsmen desire to preserve the game, 

 not especially that they themselves may kill it, but 

 that it shall be preserved ; if they desire to kill this 

 game they must and do comply with the laws estab- 

 lished by the different States, and pay the license fees. 



A fundamental reason for the protection of game, 

 and so for the establishment of such game refuges, 

 was given by President Roosevelt in a speech made 

 to the Club in the winter of 1903, when he ex- 

 pressed the opinion that it was the duty of the Gov- 

 ernment to establish these refuges and preserves for 

 the benefit of the poor man, the man in moderate 

 circumstances. The very rich, who are able to buy 

 land, may establish and care for preserves of their 

 own, but this is beyond the means of the man 

 of moderate means; and, unless the State and 

 Federal Governments establish such reservations, a 

 time is at hand when the poor man will have no place 



448 



