228 THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 
railways will be to the caribou—and to other big game—the 
day of doom. In that wild, rough region no power on earth 
—save that which might be able to deprive all the inhabitants 
and all visitors of firearms—can possibly save the game out- 
side of a few preserves that are diligently patrolled. 
The big game of the northwest region, in which I include 
the interior of Alaska, will go! It is only a question of time. 
Already the building of the city of Fairbanks and the ex- 
ploitation of the mining districts surrounding it have led to 
such harassment and slaughter of the migrating caribou that 
the great herd which formerly traversed the Tanana country 
once a year has completely changed its migration route and 
now keeps much farther north. The “crossing” of the Yukon 
near Eagle City has been abandoned. A hundred years 
hence the northwestern wilderness will be dotted with towns 
and crisscrossed with railways; but the big game of it will 
be gone, except in the preserves that are yet to be made. This 
will particularly involve the caribou, moose and mountain 
sheep of all species, which will be the first to go. The moun- 
tain goat and the forest bears will hold out longer than their 
more exposed neighbors of the treeless mountains. 
Tue Moosz.—In the United States the moose is found in 
five states—Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Wyoming and 
Idaho. There are 550 in the Yellowstone Park. In Maine 
and Minnesota only may moose be hunted and killed. In 
the season of 1909 moose to the number of 184 were killed in 
Maine—a large total, considering the small moose population 
of that state. In northern Minnesota we now possess a 
great national moose preserve of 909,743 acres; and in 1908 
