WYOMING'S RESPONSIBILITY 259 



son's Hole was stripped of forage. It is prob- 

 able that the greater part of the herds would 

 have perished but for the fact that ranchmen 

 on their own initiative distributed twenty loads 

 of hay daily to twenty thousand elk. This 

 barely sufficed to keep the animals alive. The 

 ranchmen, to be sure, were later recompensed 

 by the State for the hay, but even so it was to 

 their disadvantage to take it from their domes- 

 tic stock, which they were compelled to put on 

 exceedingly short allowance; and when they 

 fed the hay they had no guarantee that they 

 would be paid for it. 



Referring to that season, the State game war- 

 den, in his annual report, says: 



"Not many grown elk died, but about fifteen 

 per cent of the young ones perished. Had noth- 

 ing been done to relieve the elk, a frightful 

 loss would have been the result. The prompt 

 action of the settlers in taking the initiative and 

 beginning feeding operations and the generos- 

 ity of the legislature in providing funds deserve 

 the highest commendation." 



The State game warden in his estimate of the 

 elk that perished, is at wide variance with 

 every ranchman in Jackson's Hole. I person- 

 ally interviewed many of the leading residents 

 and obtained estimates from them of the pro- 



