GREAT QUESTION IN JACKSON'S 241 



obtained the names of leading guides and chief 

 citizens of the country. One of the men men- 

 tioned by him, Mr. S. N. Leek, ranchman, ex- 

 member of the State legislature, known as a 

 big-game photographer, and particularly well 

 known for his active efforts in the interests of 

 game protection, I had already communicated 

 with, earlier in the day, with a view to secur- 

 ing his co-operation. That evening I received 

 a telephonic invitation, which I accepted, to 

 visit him the following day at his ranch, that we 

 might canvass the elk situation together. 



The Jackson's Hole country — properly speak- 

 ing, Jackson's Hole is a restricted, marshy 

 space near Jackson village — is the winter range 

 of the largest elk herds on the American conti- 

 nent. The whole valley, however, which for 

 convenience I shall refer to as Jackson's Hole, 

 includes an area approximately forty miles in 

 length and perhaps ten miles in breadth, and 

 the herds that accumulate here during early 

 winter and remain until spring thaws free the 

 mountains of snow and ice aggregate, at a con- 

 servative estimate, thirty thousand animals. 



A considerable proportion of these, though 

 by no means all of them, are Yellowstone Park 

 elk, driven down from the higher altitude of 

 the park, which lies at an average of some eight 



