14 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



far removed from mushy sentimentality as from brutality, 

 results in adding one more to the State's natural resources 

 of value; and in consequence there are more moose and 

 deer in Maine to-day than there were forty years ago; there 

 is a better chance for every man in Maine, rich or poor, pro- 

 vided that he is not a game butcher, to enjoy his share of 

 good hunting; and the number of sportsmen and tourists 

 attracted to the State adds very appreciably to the means 

 of livelihood of the citizen. Game reserves should not be 

 established where they are detrimental to the interests of 

 large bodies of settlers, nor yet should they be nominally 

 established in regions so remote that the only men really 

 interfered with are those who respect the law, while a pre- 

 mium is thereby put on the activity of the unscrupulous 

 persons who are 'eager to break it. Similarly, game laws 

 should be drawn primarily in the interest of the whole 

 people, keeping steadily in mind certain facts that ought 

 to be self-evident to every one above the intellectual level 

 of those well-meaning persons who apparently think that 

 all shooting is wrong and that man could continue to exist 

 if all wild animals were allowed to increase unchecked. 

 There must be recognition of the fact that almost any wild 

 animal of the defenceless type, if its multiplication were 

 unchecked while its natural enemies, the dangerous carni- 

 vores, were killed, would by its simple increase crowd man 

 off the planet; and of the further fact that, far short of 

 such increase, a time speedily comes when the existence of 

 too much game is incompatible with the interests, or indeed 

 the existence, of the cultivator. As in most other matters, 

 it is only the happy mean which is healthy and rational. 

 There should be certain sanctuaries and nurseries where 

 game can live and breed absolutely unmolested; and else- 

 where the laws should so far as possible provide for the 

 continued existence of the game in sufficient numbers to 

 allow a reasonable amount of hunting on fair terms to any 

 hardy and vigorous man fond of the sport, and yet not in 

 sufficient numbers to jeopard the interests of the actual 



