was an Englishman and had just returned from a trip into the jungle of
India after big game, where he was accompanied by a guide, most expert
in his profession. One of the sportsman's friends asked this man how his
employer shot while on the trip. His reply was a model of tact and
concise statement: "He shot divinely, but God was very merciful to the
animals."

He who reads this brief account may naturally ask: What were the
practical results of your Western trip? Have you any ideas which may be
of value in the solution of this problem of Game Refuges? My primary
conception of the duties of a Game Expert, sent out by a Bureau of a
United States Department, was to approach this entire subject without
preconceived theories, with an open and unbiased mind; to see as many of
the various reserves as possible, under the guidance of the best men to
be had, and, increasing in this manner my knowledge by every available
means, to reserve the period of general consideration and of specific
recommendation until the whole preliminary reconnoissance should be
accomplished. The thing of prime importance is that the game expert
should see the reserves, and see them thoroughly. In a measure of such
scope what we desire is a well thought-out plan, based on knowledge of
the actual conditions, knowledge acquired in the field for the future
use of him who has acquired it. No report can transfer to the mind of
another an impression thus derived.

I had been but a short time engaged in this campaign of education before
it seemed wise to abandon the limitations imposed by traveling in
wagons; these held one to the valleys and to the dusty ways of
men. After that emancipation I lived in the haunts of the deer,
traveling with a pack train, and cruising in about the same altitude
affected by that most thoroughbred of all the conifers, the sugar
pine. Trust the genius of that tree, the pine, of all those that grow on
any of the mountains of North America, of finest power, beauty,
individuality, and distinction, to select the most attractive altitude
for its home, the daintiest air, the air fullest of strong vitality and
determination, whether man or deer is to participate in the virtues of
the favored zone. Many a time I went far beyond the region of the sugar
pine, and not infrequently cruised beneath its lower limits.

What that tree loves is a zone of about four thousand feet in width
extending from three to seven thousand feet above the le