WYOMING'S RESPONSIBILITY 261 



gone to eat it. In a few hours, or days at most, 

 those that are down now will be dead. What 

 you saw last fall will not be a fourth of what 

 you may see next spring. And still the great 

 State of Wyoming and the Federal government 

 protect them on a summer range, averaging sev- 

 enty acres to each animal, where all grazing of 

 domestic stock is prohibited, and not one acre 

 each is reserved for them for a winter range. 



"I took a photograph from my barn last 

 evening, showing probably fifty elk, part of 

 them within the corral, and at the time there 

 were fifteen hundred head of elk within my 

 field, all starving. I could feed a hundred or 

 so, but did I commence I should soon have a 

 thousand to feed, and I haven't the hay to feed 

 that many. I feel almost like quitting and let- 

 ting them all die and have the worry over." 



A day or two after writing me the above let- 

 ter, Leek wrote me again that he had can- 

 vassed Jackson's Hole to learn how much hay 

 each ranchman could in safety spare from his 

 needs for his domestic stock. The previous 

 summer was one of unusual drought, and Leek 

 found less than fifty tons of hay available for 

 elk. 



Early in February, 191 1, the State legislature 

 so far aroused itself from its indifference to the 



