GAME AS A NATIONAL RESOURCE. 25 



are owned by States, and the remainder are in private hands. The 

 elk are chiefly confined to the northern Rocky Mountain region in 

 the vicinity of the Yellowstone National Park, and in Arizona, Col- 

 orado, Idaho, Washington, and California. Of the antelope less 

 than 500 are on Government game preserves and most of the others 

 are in Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico, Nevada, and eastern Oregon. 

 Moose are restricted to Maine. Minnesota. Wyoming, Montana, and 

 Idaho. Mountain sheep are more generally distributed, the larger 

 numbers now being found in Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Arizona, 

 and California. Mountain goats are confined to the Cascade region 

 in Washington and to the mountains in western Montana and eastern 

 Idaho. 



It is of course impossible to estimate accurately the value of this 

 big game. Some of the elk, moose, and sheep belong to species 

 found nowhere else in the world and are now represented by small 

 herds. Unlike most things which have a definite value, wild game 

 can not always be replaced when it is exterminated over an area. 

 No market value in the ordinary sense of the term can be placed 

 upon such animals. If buffalo should be valued at $200, antelope 

 and moose at $100, elk at $75, and sheep and goats at $30 each (all 

 conservative figures, at least for animals for propagating purposes) , 

 the total value of the big game other than deer would be not less 

 than $5,000,000. Deer are much more abundant than any of the 

 other kinds of big game, and with the figures available it is prob- 

 ably safe to estimate that their value is at least twice that of other 

 big game. This would give a value of $10,000,000 for deer and a 

 total value of at least $15,000,000 for all the big game in the United 

 States, exclusive of Alaska. 



METHODS OF INCREASING GAME RESOURCES. 



Of the various methods of increasing game resources which have 

 been suggested or put into practice in the United States, four merit 

 special notice, namely, protecting game, establishing refuges, re- 

 stocking depleted areas, and breeding on game farms. 



The simplest method, and usually the first adopted, consists merely 

 in protecting the native stock of game so as to allow it to increase 

 naturally. This is done through legislation, by defining the seasons 

 for hunting, regulating methods of capture, and limiting the amount 

 that may be taken or the purpose for which it may be used; and 

 through administration, by enforcing the various provisions of law. 

 All of this work, which has occupied most of the attention of game 

 departments, is in a certain sense negative, since, without any con- 

 structive action in the direction of increasing the stock, it merely 

 seeks to prevent undue destruction. 



