188 OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



they did not move the flock to a new pasture. 

 " Oh, no use ! " cried Antone. " Look my 

 dead sheeps. We move three four time before, 

 all the same bear come by the track. No use. 

 To-morrow we go home below. Look my dead 

 sheeps. Soon all dead." 



Thus were they driven out of the mountains 

 more than a month before the usual time. After 

 Uncle Sam's soldiers, bears are the most effective 

 forest police, but some of the shepherds are very 

 successful in killing them. Altogether, by 

 hunters, mountaineers, Indians, and sheepmen, 

 probably five or six hundred have been killed 

 within the bounds of the Park, during the last 

 thirty years. But they are not in danger of 

 extinction. Now that the Park is guarded by 

 soldiers, not only has the vegetation in great 

 part come back to the desolate ground, but all 

 the wild animals are increasing in numbers. No 

 guns are allowed in the Park except under cer- 

 tain restrictions, and after a permit has been 

 obtained from the officer in charge. This has 

 stopped the barbarous slaughter of bears, and 

 especially of deer, by shepherds, hunters, and 

 hunting tourists, who, it would seem, can find 

 no pleasure without blood. 



The Sierra deer — the blacktail — spend the 

 winters in the brushy and exceedingly rough 

 region just below the main timber-belt, and are 

 less accessible to hunters there than when they 



