20 WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



responsible for 1,155,966 men and boys hunting in 

 1911 according to law, making up the grand total 

 of more than 2,600,000 previously mentioned. 



To this vast body we must add another grand 

 army of gunners, believed to be equally large, hunt- 

 ing contrary to law and without licenses, and killing 

 wild creatures, game and non-game, in season and 

 out of season, to an extent of slaughter fully as 

 great as that perpetrated by the licensed hunters. 



Now for an illustration of the practical effect of 

 our grotesque and absurd national system of game 

 protection. 



The state of Utah is, with the exception of its 

 irrigated lands, a desert state. Its stock of game, 

 excepting the migratory ducks of Great Salt Lake, 

 is at a very low point. The population of the state 

 is only 373,351, but in 1911 that state sent an army 

 of 27,800 well-armed men into the field against her 

 pitiful remnant of game birds and quadrupeds. 

 And this sort of thing the people of America call 

 "game protection"! 



In addition to the hunters themselves who annu- 

 ally take the field, they are assisted by thousands 

 of expert guides, thousands of well-trained dogs, 

 thousands of horses, thousands of wagons and 

 automobiles, and hundreds of thousands of tents. 

 Each big-game hunter provides himself with an 

 experienced local guide who knows the haunts and 

 habits of the game, the best feeding-grounds, the 

 best trails, and everything else that will aid the 



