38 HUNTING TRIPS 



hunters and trappers who have lived on the 

 game that the settlement of the country has 

 exterminated, and let him, like these whites, 

 who will not work, perish from the face of 

 the earth which he cumbers. 



The doctrine seems merciless, and so it is ; 

 but it is just and rational for all that. It 

 does not do to be merciful to a few, at the 

 cost of justice to the many. The cattle-men 

 at least keep herds and build houses on the 

 land ; yet I would not for a moment debar 

 settlers from the right of entry to the cattle 

 country, though their coming in means in 

 the end the destruction of us and our in- 

 dustry. 



For we ourselves, and the life that we lead, 

 will shortly pass away from the plains as 

 completely as the red and white hunters who 

 have vanished from before our herds. The 

 free, open-air life of the ranchman, the 

 pleasantest and healthiest life in America, 

 is from its very nature ephemeral. The 

 broad and boundless prairies have already 

 been bounded and will soon be made nar- 



