American Big-Game Hunting 



they long since left that ideal grazing- 

 ground. The Upper Missouri and Yellow- 

 stone valleys were the homes of magnificent 

 herds ; now they have disappeared forever. 

 I never had the good fortune to see such 

 enormous herds as frequently wandered over 

 western Kansas ; but I well remember one 

 autumn afternoon, when seated in a railway 

 car, book in hand, glancing out upon the 

 prairie, as I turned the pages, I scarcely 

 looked up from the volume but the shaggy 

 forms of buffalo were visible ; and this con- 

 tinued until darkness cut off the view. To- 

 day none are to be seen. Except under 

 protection, buffalo have practically become 

 extinct. Elk, moose, deer, antelope, and 

 mountain sheep are gradually retiring to 

 more and more secluded mountain recesses. 

 Year by year game areas become more re- 

 stricted, even in the mountain regions. The 

 lumberman and railway-tie cutter, the ad- 

 vance-guard of a constantly increasing civil- 

 ization, are steadily encroaching upon the 

 haunts of game. 



Large areas of the Rocky Mountain coun- 

 try are timberless and in great part waterless 



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