216 THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 
thing to expect, after Canada’s present railway programme 
has been wrought out. 
Yes, indeed! In time the wilderness will be opened up, and 
the big game will all be shot out, save from the protected areas. 
In Mezico there is little hoofed game to kill—deer of the 
white-tail groups, seven or eight species; the desert mule 
deer; the brocket; a very few prong-horned antelope and 
mountain sheep, and the peccary. The deer will not so 
easily be exterminated, but the antelope and sheep will be 
utterly destroyed. They will be the first to go; and I think 
they cannot by any possibility last longer than ten years. Is 
it not too bad that Mexico should permit her finest species of 
hoofed and horned game to be obliterated before she awakens 
to the desirability of conservation! The Mexicans could pro- 
tect their small stock of big game if they would; but in Lower 
California they are leasing huge tracts of land to cattle com- 
panies, and they permit the lessees to kill all the wild game 
they please on their leased lands, even with the aid of dogs. 
This is a vicious and fatal system, and contrary to all the 
laws of nations. 
THe Mountain Goat.—Even yet this species is not 
wholly extinct in the United States. It survives in Glacier 
Park, Montana, and the number estimated in that region by 
three guide friends is too astoundingly large to mention. 
This animal is much more easily killed than the big-horn. 
Its white coat renders it fatally conspicuous at long range 
during the best hunting season; it is almost devoid of fear, 
and it takes altogether too many chances on man. Thanks 
to the rage for sheep horns, the average sportsman’s view- 
