236 THE LARGE AMERICAN MAMMALS 
The present death rate of big game cannot long continue 
without the disappearance of killable big game down to the 
vanishing-point. Existing laws are utterly imadequate to 
stop the poacher and the meat-butcher. The question is: 
Will the people of the United States and Canada now arouse, 
and adopt the sweeping measures that are vitally necessary, 
and which alone can save and restore a supply of grand game 
for the sportsmen of the future? 
Our present ghastly system of legal slaughter and exter- 
mination means the sure extermination of everything, save 
the white-tailed deer, outside of the rigidly protected game 
preserves. 
Americans and Canadians, take your choice: Shall it be 
all for the men of to-day, or conservation, and a square deal 
to the men of the future? 
