OF THE LARGE AMERICAN MAMMALS 201 



is so difficult for them to hide and so very easy for man to 

 creep up within the killing range of modern, high-power, 

 long-range rifles. Is it not pitiful to think of animals like 

 the caribou, moose, white sheep and bear trying to survive 

 on the naked ridges and bald mountains of Yukon Territory 

 and Alaska ! With a modern rifle the greatest duffer on earth 

 can creep up within killing distance of any of the big game of 

 the North. 



The gray wolf is practically the only large animal that is 

 able to hide successfully and survive in the treeless regions 

 of the North; but his room is always preferable to his com- 

 pany, because he, too, is a destroyer of big game. 



I am tempted to try to map out roughly what are to-day 

 the unopened and undestroyed wild haunts of big game in 

 North America. In doing this, however, I warn the reader 

 not to be deceived into thinking that because game still 

 exists in those regions, those areas therefore constitute a per- 

 manent preserve and safe breeding-ground for large mam- 

 mals. That is very, very far from being the case. The 

 further "opening up" of the wilderness areas, as I shall call 

 them for convenience, can and surely will quickly wipe out 

 their big game; for throughout nine-tenths of those areas it 

 holds to life by very slender threads. 



UNOPENED WILDERNESS AREAS 



To-day the unopened and undestroyed wilderness areas of 

 North America, wherein large mammals still live in a normal 

 wild state, are in general as follows: 



The Arctic Barren Grounds, or Arctic Prairies, north of 



