WYOMING'S RESPONSIBILITY 251 



farmer should provide food for his stock, she 

 should provide food for her elk. 



Very early Wyoming awoke to the fact that 

 her wild game was one of the most valuable 

 resources of the State and took wise and praise- 

 worthy steps for its protection. She was one 

 of the first, if not the first, of our States to re- 

 quire non-resident hunters to pay well for the 

 privilege of hunting big game within her bor- 

 ders. At the cost of fifty dollars the non-resi- 

 dent may purchase a big game license allowing 

 him to kill certain designated animals, includ- 

 ing one elk, and upon the payment of an addi- 

 tional fifty dollars, a second as a limit. 



Laws were passed providing severe punish- 

 ment for head and tusk hunters, the latter at 

 one time invading the game fields and killing 

 great numbers of bulls for the tusks alone and 

 in no way utilizing the flesh. They were about 

 the most unconscionable game killers, worse 

 even than the old buffalo hunters who killed 

 for hides, and contributed more than any other 

 cause to the destruction of elk in regions where 

 they were once plentiful but are no longer 

 found. 



I have known a pair of tusks, within a year 

 to sell for forty dollars, and they were un- 

 mounted and just as taken from the animal. 



