200 THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 



At this time, with the large mammals of North America 

 trembling on the brink of annihilation, no chapters in this 

 work can surpass in importance those which attempt to set 

 forth understandingly the prospects* of our so-called "big- 

 game" animals. It is necessary that every person who is 

 interested in our mammalian fauna should know exactly 

 where we stand to-day and what the outlook is for the near 

 future. 



The subject of this chapter opens up a vast field of facts 

 and conclusions, quite broad enough to fill a whole volume. 

 In the space at our disposal here it is possible to offer only a 

 summary of the subject, without attempting to prove our 

 statements by the production of detailed evidence. 



To say that all over the world the large land mammals 

 are being destroyed more rapidly than they are breeding, 

 would not be literally -true, for the reason that there are yet 

 many areas that are almost untouched by the destroying 

 hand of civilized man. It is true, however, that all the un- 

 spoiled areas are rapidly growing fewer and smaller. It is 

 also true that in all the regions of the earth that are easily 

 penetrable by civilized man, the wild life is being killed faster 

 than it breeds, and of necessity it is disappearing. This is 

 why the British are now so urgently bestirring themselves to 

 create game preserves in all the countries of their domain. 



It is one of the inexorable laws of Nature, to which I know 

 of not one exception, that large hoofed animals which live on 

 open plains, on open mountains or in regions that are thinly 

 forested, are always easily found and easily exterminated. 

 All such animals have a weak hold on life. This is because it 



