The Creating of Game Refuges 



upper reaches of the streams, and will afford pro- 

 tection to grouse, quail, and other birds, but pri- 

 marily their purpose is to prevent the exter- 

 mination of big game. In California this has 

 gone as far as it is safe to go if we are to save 

 the remnant. Even the California grizzly has 

 been killed off so relentlessly that it was a ques- 

 tion, when I was there, whether a single pair 

 survived which might possibly in that State pre- 

 serve the species. The ranger who knew the 

 most about this was of the opinion that two or 

 three were still left alive. He had seen their tracks 

 within a year.* There are, I have been assured, 

 others in Oregon. 



If I had my way, the first act in creating a game 

 refuge should be to insure the survival of the few 

 that remain. These bears are pitifully wary as 

 compared with their former bold and domineering 

 attitude; they would gladly keep out of harm's 

 way if only they might be allowed to do so. It 

 is time, it seems to me, to call a truce to man's 

 hostility to them, once a foe not to be despised. 

 Now they are so completely conquered that man 

 owes it to himself not too relentlessly to pursue a 



*I have been informed since the above was written that 

 he saw the tracks of a single grizzly after I was there, to- 

 ward the end of July. 



411 



