216 THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 



thing to expect, after Canada's present railway programme 

 has been wrought out. 



Yes, indeed ! In time the wilderness will be opened up, and 

 the big game will all be shot out, save from the protected areas. 



In Mexico there is little hoofed game to kill— deer of the 

 white-tail groups, seven or eight species; the desert mule 

 deer; the brocket; a very few prong-horned antelope and 

 mountain sheep, and the peccary. The deer will not so 

 easily be exterminated, but the antelope and sheep will be 

 utterly destroyed. They will be the first to go; and I think 

 they cannot by any possibility last longer than ten years. Is 

 it not too bad that Mexico should permit her finest species of 

 hoofed and horned game to be obliterated before she awakens 

 to the desirability of conservation ! The Mexicans could pro- 

 tect their small stock of big game if they would; but in Lower 

 California they are leasing huge tracts of land to cattle com- 

 panies, and they permit the lessees to kill all the wild game 

 they please on their leased lands, even with the aid of dogs. 

 This is a vicious and fatal system, and contrary to all the 

 laws of nations. 



The Mountain Goat. — Even yet this species is not 

 wholly extinct in the United States. It survives in Glacier 

 Park, Montana, and the number estimated in that region by 

 three guide friends is too astoundingly large to mention. 



This animal is much more easily killed than the big-horn. 

 Its white coat renders it fatally conspicuous at long range 

 during the best hunting season; it is almost devoid of fear, 

 and it takes altogether too many chances on man. Thanks 

 to the rage for sheep horns, the average sportsman's view- 



