Page 82 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

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60 OUR VANISHING WILD LIFE
Utah, with only 373,351 population, had 27,800 men in the field after her very small remnant of game ! How can any wild thing of Utah escape ?
Montana, population 376,053, had in 1911 an army of 59,291 well- armed men, warring chiefly upon the big game, and swiftly extermi- nating it.
How long can any of the big game stand before the army of two and one-half million well-armed men, eager and keen to kill, and out to get an equivalent for their annual expenditure in guns, ammunition and other expenses ?
In addition to the hunters themselves, they are assisted by thousands of expert guides, thousands of horses, thousands of dogs, hundreds of automobilesandhundredsofthousandsoftents. Eachbig-gamehunter has an experienced guide who knows the haunts and habits of the game, the best feeding grounds, the best trails, and everything else that will aid thehunterintakingthegameatadisadvantageanddestroyingit. Thebig- game rifles are of the highest power, the longest range, the greatest accu- racy and the best repeating mechanism that modern inventive genius can produce. ItissaidthatinWyomingtheMaximsilencerisnowbeing used. Englandhasproducedaweaponofanewtype,called"thescatter rifle,"whichisintendedforuseonducks. Thebestbinocularsareused in searching out the game, and horses carry the hunters and guides as near aspossibletothegame. Forbears,baitsarefreelyused,andinthepur- suit of pumas, dogs are employed to the limit of the available supply.
The deadliness of the automobile in hunting already is so apparent that North Dakota has wisely and justly forbidden their use by law, (1911). The swift machine enables city gunmen to penetrate game regions they could not reach with horses, and hunt through from four
to six localities per day, instead of one only, as formerly. The use of automobiles in hunting should be everywhere prohibited.
Every appliance and assistance that money can buy, the modern sportsmansecurestohelphimagainstthegame. Thegameisbesetdur- ing its breeding season by various wild enemies,—foxes, cats, wolves, pumas,lynxes,eagles,andmanyotherpredatoryspecies. Theonlyhelp thatitreceivesisintheformofanannualcloseseason whichthusfarhas saved in America only a few local moose, white-tailed deer and a few game birds, from, steady and sure extermination.
The hag limits on which vast reliance is placed to preserve the wild game, areafraud,adelusionandasnare! Thefewlocalexceptionsonlyprove the generality of the rule. In every state, without one single exception, the bag limits are far too high, and the laws are of deadly liberality. In many states, the bag limit laws on birds are an absolute dead letter. Fancy the 125 wardens of New York enforcing the bag-limit laws on 150,- 000 gunners! It is this horrible condition that is enabling the licensed army of destruction to get in its deadly work on the game, all over the world. InAmerica,theover-liberalityofthelawsaretoblamefortwo- thirds of the carnival of slaughter, and the successful evasions of the law are responsible for the other third.