256 SADDLE AND CAMP 



eluded the suggestion that the few ranchmen 

 settled here could be induced to relinquish and 

 abandon their homesteads for a gross sum of 

 from $40,000 to $50,000, and that the State 

 could then cut and stack the hay from the irri- 

 gated ranch meadows, to be fed to the animals 

 as necessity demanded. It is probable that for 

 a year or two this would carry the five thousand 

 elk wintering there at present through the try- 

 ing period in fairly good shape. 



The proposed Gros Ventre refuge lies at a 

 high altitude, however; its snows are deep, and 

 the animals would have to be fed regularly in 

 yards they would make for themselves; at most 

 but a small part of the herds could be cared for 

 here, while this new refuge would practically 

 eliminate hunting and to that extent tend to in- 

 crease the number of animals and make the 

 problem of caring for them more difficult each 

 winter. 



Conservative approximate estimates of the 

 elk in northwestern Wyoming place the number 

 at 50,000. Those wintering in the Jackson's 

 Hole country, between the Hoback and the 

 Gros Ventre rivers, may be placed conserva- 

 tively at 30,000. Snow lies so deep upon many 

 sections of Jackson's Hole that herds are forced 

 to segregate in various separate and limited 



