VALUABLE WILD LIFE 7 



ing scores of matters that once were questions, and 

 therefore debatable, we now can say that we know! 

 It is on the use that we make of our knowledge of 

 existing facts that the future of the wild life of 

 America now depends. 



Owing to the sweeping changes that have come 

 upon our wild life during the last twenty years, the 

 young student of to-day needs to be told something 

 of the wild life of the past. 



Concerning the former abundance of animal life, 

 a knowledge of the past always gives hope for the 

 future. One of the great natural wonders of the 

 continent of North America, as it came to man 

 from the hand of Nature, was the marvelous variety 

 and abundance of its wild life. Abundance is the 

 only word with which to describe the original 

 supply of animal life that stocked our country only 

 a short half century ago. Throughout every state, 

 on every shore-line, in all the millions of fresh- water 

 lakes, ponds and rivers, on every mountain range, 

 in every forest, aye, even in every desert, the 

 wild flocks and herds held sway. It was impossible 

 to go beyond the haunts of civilized man and escape 

 them. 



The value of the wild life of North America is 

 a subject by itself, which gradually will be devel- 

 oped. In order to become successful conservers of 

 the remnant of that wild life, it is indispensable 

 that we should know in brief the sad story of its 

 past. Patrick Henry spoke wisely when he said, 



