148 Deer and Antelope of North America 



Formerly, when wapiti were plentiful, it would 

 have been folly for hunters and settlers in the 

 unexplored wilderness not to kill wild game for 

 their meat, and occasionally a cow or a calf had 

 to be thus slain ; but there is no excuse nowadays 

 for a hunting party killing anything but a full- 

 grown bull. 



In a civilized and cultivated country wild ani- 

 mals only continue to exist at all when preserved 

 by sportsmen. The excellent people who protest 

 against all hunting, and consider sportsmen as 

 enemies of wild life, are wholly ignorant of the 

 fact that in reality the genuine sportsman is by 

 all odds the most important factor in keeping wild 

 creatures from total extermination. Of course, if 

 wild animals were allowed to breed unchecked, 

 they would, in an incredibly short space of time, 

 render any country uninhabitable by man, — a 

 fact which ought to be a matter of elementary 

 knowledge in any community where the average 

 intelligence is above that of certain portions of 

 Hindoostan. Equally, of course, in a purely utili- 

 tarian community all wild animals are extermi- 

 nated out of hand. I n order to preserve the wild life 

 of the wilderness at all, some middle ground must 

 be found between brutal and senseless slaughter 

 and the unhealthy sentimentalism which would 

 just as surely defeat its own end by bringing 

 about the eventual total extinction of the game. 



