228 THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 



railways will be to the caribou — and to other big game — the 

 day of doom. In that wild, rough region no power on earth 

 — save that which might be able to deprive all the inhabitants 

 and all visitors of firearms — can possibly save the game out- 

 side of a few preserves that are diligently patrolled. 



The big game of the northwest region, in which I include 

 the interior of Alaska, will go! It is only a question of time. 

 Already the building of the city of Fairbanks and the ex- 

 ploitation of the mining districts surrounding it have led to 

 such harassment and slaughter of the migrating caribou that 

 the great herd which formerly traversed the Tanana country 

 once a year has completely changed its migration route and 

 now keeps much farther north. The "crossing" of the Yukon 

 near Eagle City has been abandoned. A hundred years 

 hence the northwestern wilderness w T ill be dotted with towns 

 and crisscrossed with railways; but the big game of it will 

 be gone, except in the preserves that are yet to be made. This 

 will particularly involve the caribou, moose and mountain 

 sheep of all species, which will be the first to go. The moun- 

 tain goat and the forest bears will hold out longer than their 

 more exposed neighbors of the treeless mountains. 



The Moose. — In the United States the moose is found in 

 five states — Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Wyoming and 

 Idaho. There are 550 in the Yellowstone Park. In Maine 

 and Minnesota only may moose be hunted and killed. In 

 the season of 1909 moose to the number of 184 were killed in 

 Maine — a large total, considering the small moose population 

 of that state. In northern Minnesota we now possess a 

 great national moose preserve of 909,743 acres; and in 1908 



