FOREWORD TO FIRST EDITION xxvii 



and due regard for the interests and feelings of 

 others, may do much good, even in the most demo- 

 cratic community. But wherever the population 

 is sufficiently advanced in intelligence and char- 

 acter, a far preferable and more democratic way of 

 preserving the game is by a system of public pre- 

 serves, of protected nurseries and breeding-grounds, 

 while the laws define the conditions under which 

 all alike may shoot the game and the restrictions 

 under which all alike must enjoy the privilege. 

 It is in this way that the wild creatures of the 

 forest and the mountain can best and most per- 

 manently be preserved. Even in the United 

 States the enactment and observance of such laws 

 has brought about a marked increase in the game 

 of certain localities, as, for instance, New England, 

 during the past thirty years ; while in the Yellow- 

 stone Park the elk, deer, antelope, and mountain 

 sheep, and, strangest of all, the bear, are not 

 merely preserved in all their wild freedom, but, 

 by living unmolested, have grown to show a con- 

 fidence in man and a tameness in his presence such 

 as elsewhere can be found only in regions where 

 he has been hitherto unknown. 



The chase is the best of all national pastimes, 

 and this none the less because, like every other 

 pastime, it is a mere source of weakness if carried 

 on in an unhealthy manner, or to an excessive 

 degree, or under over-artificial conditions. Every 



