236 
JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY 
The main danger to wild life, however, has not been from hunting for sport or 
for individual use, but has been largely due to the commercial use of game, and its 
extermination to make way for the occupation of its territory by man. The 
commercial pursuit of game and other mammals for one purpose or another has 
made use of many improved methods of killing and transportation, until to-day 
the urgent need of limitations to such destruction of our wildlife asset is obvious. 
Attempts to conserve our wild game by the prohibition of its sale for commercial 
purposes, the establishment of bag limits and of closed seasons, and other legal 
methods, have been effective in delaying extermination. Public education as to 
the needs of a reasonable use of our wild life is also becoming more and more 
widespread. 
As an instance of the demands of commerce for wildlife products may be cited 
the rise in value of muskrat skins until in 1920 they sold in Montreal at ^7.50 each. 
The result of such prices was that muskrats were practically exterminated over 
great areas. Similar high prices for furs and an insistent commercial demand for 
them will menace the existence of all fur bearers not effectively protected by law. 
In some areas, as in the State of Pennsylvania, an enormous amount of game is 
killed each year owing to the establishment of a considerable number of state game 
sanctuaries which serve as breeding grounds as well as refuges. Doctor Nelson 
believes that this is significant in indicating possibly a practical solution of the 
problem of wildlife conservation to the degree which the occupation of the states 
as a whole by man can permit. 
For some years, he stated, the Biological Survey, with the United States Forest 
Service, has been working with the stock growers’ associations of the West to bring 
about som.e agreed-upon policy for the conservation of game on the national forests, 
where vast numbers of domestic stocks are grazed. Many stockmen have taken 
the attitude that game is a nuisance since it takes some of the forage which stock 
might use. In addition, many stockmen have feared that game conservationists 
might desire to crowd domestic stock off the ranges in order to devote them to 
game. He believed that the movement among the stock growers was beginning 
to make headway, since at the last meeting of the National Stock Growers’ Asscia- 
tion, in Colorado, a resolution was passed recommending that study of game 
conditions on the national forests be made in order to work out a policy whereby 
game might be maintained along with the live stock. This is an extremely 
encouraging development. 
Doctor Nelson agreed with Doctor Hornaday that the conservation element is 
a small minority and that they must keep everlastingly at the problem if they are 
to succeed. Discouraging reports of frightful slaughter are continually coming 
and these are not helpful to the morale of the conservation element. Indians 
have considered it their special privilege to kill wild game at will. He believes 
this source of destruction is a special danger which it is peculiarly difficult to 
avert in Alaska and northern Canada. 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
1904. — Preservation of the Wild Animals of North America. Henry Fairfield 
Osborn. Published by Boone and Crockett Club; pp. 1-27. 
1912. — ’Preservation of the World’s Animal Life. Henry Fairfield Osborn. Amer- 
ican Museum Journal, vol. xii, no. 4, pp. 123-24. 
