28 The Wilderness Hunter 



the Rockies and Cascades, and a few small isolated 

 colonies are found here and there southward to Cali- 

 fornia and New Mexico. 



The cougar and wolf, once common throughout 

 the United States, have now completely disappeared 

 from all save the wildest regions. The black bear 

 holds its own better ; it was never found on the great 

 plains. The huge grisly ranges from the great plains 

 to the Pacific. The little peccary or Mexican wild 

 hog merely crosses our southern border. 



The finest hunting ground in America was, and 

 indeed is, the mountainous region of western Mon- 

 tana and northwestern Wyoming. In this high, cold 

 land, of lofty mountains, deep forests, and open 

 prairies, with its beautiful lakes and rapid rivers, all 

 the species of big game mentioned above, except 

 the peccary and Columbian blacktail, are to be found. 

 Until 1880 they were very abundant, and they are 

 still, with the exception of the bison, fairly plentiful. 

 On most of the long hunting expeditions which I 

 made away from my ranch, I went into this region. 



The bulk of my hunting has been done in the cat- 

 tle country, near my ranch on the Little Missouri, 

 and in the adjoining lands round the lower Powder 

 and Yellowstone. Until 1881 the valley of the Lit- 

 tle Missouri was fairly thronged with game, and 

 was absolutely unchanged in any respect from its 

 original condition of primeval wildness. With the 

 incoming of the stockmen all this changed, and the 



