WYOMING'S RESPONSIBILITY 255 



take the requisite steps to secure a winter range 

 while these animals are in prime condition." 



The winter range suggested, which it was 

 proposed to make also a game refuge, was the 

 Gros Ventre River territory, thus adding to the 

 prohibited hunting country a large part of the 

 only unrestricted territory which these great 

 herds now visit during the open hunting season. 

 This proposition has not as yet been put 

 through, largely because of the solid opposition 

 of the residents of Jackson's Hole, who are too 

 well aware, not only of its inadequacy to re- 

 lieve the situation, but also of the absolute cer- 

 tainty that it would make matters even worse 

 by practically putting a stop to shooting, and 

 surely result in leaving those few annually 

 killed, which is far below the yearly increase, 

 to starve. The setting apart of this refuge, 

 however, is still a live question. 



I rode over this proposed new winter range, 

 and it appealed to me as so palpably unfitted 

 for the purpose that I could only wonder at the 

 proposition. Everyone who knew the country 

 here voiced this opinion. At present some five 

 thousand elk attempt to winter on the Gros 

 Ventre, but the mortality among them is tre- 

 mendous. 



The proposition to set aside this territory in- 



