CHAPTER XVIII 



WYOMING'S RESPONSIBILITY FOR DEAD ELK 



THE State of Wyoming is very largely re- 

 sponsible for the wholesale starvation of 

 elk which annually takes place within 

 her borders. While the Federal government 

 robbed the animals of the original ranges to 

 which nature adapted them and which would 

 have provided them with ample pasturage 

 through the trying months of any ordinary win- 

 ter, Wyoming has adopted all elk coming with- 

 in her boundaries as hers, and whenever it has 

 been suggested has resented Federal or other 

 interference tending toward their protection, 

 because of their acknowledged intrinsic value 

 to her. She has thus placed upon herself the 

 responsibility of providing them, artificially, 

 with winter forage. She has brought her elk 

 to a state of semi-domestication, and just as a 



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