4 OUR BIG GAME 



(there being only a small herd in the Yellowstone Na- 

 tional Park), and the elk and deer have everywhere 

 deserted the plains to live in secluded forests and 

 mountain fastnesses. The antelope are no longer to 

 be seen in many places where they were formerly 

 abundant, and the naturalists predict that they soon 

 will be exterminated. But there are to-day many local- 

 ities where the large game animals (excepting the bison 

 and antelope) may be found fairly abundant, and where 

 the sportsman may count upon getting the limited 

 number of animals (" with horns," as the statutes read), 

 which it is now legal for one gun to take in a season. 

 The killing of does and fawns has been prohibited 

 everywhere, and the bag limit is usually not more than 

 one or two of the larger animals in a season. 



The number of sportsmen who shoot big game has 

 increased rapidly within the past few years, but not- 

 withstanding the fact that they now use smokeless 

 powder in repeating rifles, and are thus able to see to 

 fire rapidly in the damp woods, where the smoke from 

 black powder often sadly interfered with a second 

 shot, the large game animals are holding their own 

 much better than they did a few years ago, and in 

 some localities they show an increase. 



It is gratifying to record the fact that the tremen- 

 dous slaughter and waste have been stayed, and that 

 there are, in many States of the Union, excellent game- 

 laws which are now enforced. The zoologists, like 

 the ornithologists, are inclined to be pessimistic when 

 discussing the decrease of game. One date fixed for 

 the extermination of the moose has already passed, 

 but the moose in Maine and the deer in several New 



