GAME KEFUGES. 49 



no game there there would be no object in having a closed season 

 protecting it. There is no doubt, however, but that the game has 

 been depleted in Colorado. As a young man I lived in Colorado, and 

 the mountains were covered with wild game. It is not possible to 

 bring back the game as we. had it in that country 30 years ago. That 

 would not be possible, or profitable. Nobody imagines that can be 

 done or wants to have it done. While the doctor says there is little 

 sentiment in the West in favor of game, our friend Barnes has called 

 attention to the fact that the sentiment is so strong that in some cases 

 the State has created game preserves extending over niore territory 

 than he thinks they should extend over. 



As I said hi my statement a moment ago, better preservation for 

 game is to be had, in the long run, in my opinion, by closed seasons 

 covering a great territory than by having small patches and areas 

 here and there where there is no hunting allowed at all. Mr. Barnes 

 called attention to the fact that in my State we at one time made 

 the whole of the Big Horn Forest Reserve a game preserve and we 

 made it too large, he thought, because he said it deprived some sheep 

 of feed. Well, it would not deprive sheep of feed if there were not 

 some game there. Dr. Hornaday said there was no game in the Big 

 Horn. I have not hunted game in the Big Horn, but I formerly 

 spent some time in that beautiful mountain country and I have seen 

 a great deal of game there and it is coming back. It was a good 

 thing for our legislature to make this whole mountain area a game 

 preserve and prohibit hunting absolutely for a time until the game 

 should have an opportunity to increase reasonably. 



I think that what Mr. Barnes has said indicates that there is a 

 healthy sentiment in the West for game preservation, and if the 

 gentlemen having to do with the forest reserves will endeavor to 

 arrange their grazing in a way which fits in with the State provisions 

 with regard to reserves there will be no difficulty. It is not necessary, 

 because a State like the State of Colorado prohibits all kinds of big- 

 game hunting all over the State to largely reduce the amount of 

 grazing on all the reserves of the State, though, of course, if that pro- 

 hibition continues long enough the game would increase to an extent 

 where you would have to reduce the number of grazing animals, but 

 that comes very slowly, and before that time arrives the game laws 

 would be modified. 



I want to thank the committee for having been very patient with me. 



ADDITIONAL STATEMENT OF DR. WILLIAM T. HORNADAY. 



Dr. Hornaday. I would like one minute in which to put something 

 into the record. There is a question of fact at issue between Mr. 

 Mondell and myself in regard to the presence of moose in Wyoming. 

 I am going to read a few lines from a book entitled "Our Vanishing 

 Wild Life," page 336: 



Lieut. Col. L. M. Brett, United States Army, superintendent of the Yellowstone 

 Park, advises me (July 29, 1912) that the wild big game in the Yellowstone Park in 

 the summer of 1912 is, as shown below, based on actual counts and estimates of the 

 park scouts, and particularly Scout McBride. The estimates of buffalo, elk, antelope, 

 deer, sheep, and bear are based on actual counts or very close observations, and are 

 pretty nearly correct. 



He estimates wild buffalo, 49; moose, 550; elk (in summer), 35,000; 

 antelope, 500; mountain sheep, 210; mule deer, 400; white-tail 



53985—16 4 



