THE END OF THE TRAIL 295 



every year because of depleted ranges. Every 

 one whom I interviewed hereabouts — hunters, 

 guides, game wardens, and park scouts — made 

 similar statements, and all traced the mortality 

 among animals to the one cause — overstocking 

 the ranges with domestic sheep. This, it was 

 asserted, had resulted not only in the destruc- 

 tion of thousands of elk, but of large numbers 

 of park antelope as well. 



"The country in question," Mr. Hague 

 wrote, "is in the forest reserve, east of the Yel- 

 lowstone River and in extent is seventy-five or 

 eighty miles long by twenty-five miles wide and 

 adjoins Yellowstone Park on the north. In 

 this territory there are now between 50,000 and 

 60,000 head of sheep." 



He also stated that in early spring of that 

 year (1910) he passed through this region and 

 saw great numbers of elk and deer, which had 

 come out of the park, feeding in the valleys and 

 on the mountainsides. A few weeks later — in 

 July — he returned through the same region and 

 saw not one elk or deer, but did see the valleys 

 and mountains covered with domestic sheep. 

 During the course of this journey Mr. Hague 

 passed the decaying carcasses of a large number 

 of elk that had starved to death. One of the 

 shepherds took the trouble to count the elk car- 



