"There is no recovery of an extinct species. Conservation or devastation—which shall it be? Common sense demands the regulation of hunting in such a way that our wild life will persist as a permanent asset." Western Wild Life Call, published by the California Associated Charities for the Conservation of Wild Life.
Nature has done more for our land than for almost any other. She has given it vast forests, fertile soil, favorable climate, enormous water power, many minerals, and a wonderful variety of animal life.
During all the centuries that the Indians lived here before the coming of white men, wild game furnished them their chief food, but in spite of this, the amount of game was not decreased. When our forefathers landed upon this continent, it fairly swarmed with animals and birds. With the clearing away of the forests and the settling of the prairies men could not help depriving many wild creatures of both their shelter and their food, but this was not the chief cause for their rapid decrease in numbers. Hunters followed them persistently into the wilder hills and mountains, and many, not needed for food, were killed for their furs.
Now we may travel for days through the remote and still unsettled parts of our country and see very little life of any kind except birds and the smaller animals, such as squirrels. Occasionally we may start up a deer that flees away from us like the wind. Still more rarely we come upon a bear and are fortunate if we get even the merest sight of him before he is gone.
The fear of man has spread among all the wild creatures. There is good reason for this fear, because man has completely exterminated some species and so reduced the numbers of others that careful protection will be needed to save them. Travelers tell us that in those lands where man rarely goes the wild creatures have little fear of him.
The story of the slaughter of the buffalo is known to us all. Once this noble animal roamed from the Alleghenies to the Rocky Mountains. Countless thousands were killed merely for their hides, and other thousands were killed for sport. Finally, when they were almost gone, people awoke to the importance of saving them. Several small herds, not more than a few hundred in number, that had escaped the hunters were placed under protection and now they are slowly increasing.
The grizzly, king of bears, was once abundant in parts of the Rocky Mountains and upon the Pacific slope, but now he is found only in the Yellowstone Park region. The man who killed the last specimen in California is proud of his great achievement.
L. A. Huffman, Miles City, Mont.