r own peculiar possession by the
settlers living where such a refuge might be established, will
inevitably grow less and less as time goes on; and, as it grows less,
the contributions to State and local resources from the non-resident tax
will also grow less. Thirty years ago the buffalo skinner declared that
the millions of buffalo could never be exterminated; yet the buffalo
disappeared, and after them one species of big game after another
vanished over much of the country. The future can be judged only by the
past. Thirty years ago there were elk all over the plains, from the
Missouri River westward to the Rocky Mountains; now there are no elk on
the plains, and, except in winter, when driven down from their summer
range by the snows, they are found only in the timbered mountains. What
has been so thoroughly accomplished will be sure to continue; and,
unless the suggested refuges shall be established, there will soon be no
game to protect--a real loss to the country.

It has long been customary for Western men of a certain type to say that
Eastern sportsmen are trying to protect the game in order that they
themselves may kill it, the implication being that they wish to take it
away from those living near it, and who presumably have the greatest
right to it. Talk of this kind has no foundation in fact, as is shown by
the laws passed by the Western States, which often demand heavy license
fees from non-residents, and hedge about their hunting with other
restrictions. Many Eastern sportsmen desire to preserve the game, not
especially that they themselves may kill it, but that it shall be
preserved; if they desire to kill this game they must and do comply with
the laws established by the different States, and pay the license fees.

A fundamental reason for the protection of game, and so for the
establishment of such game refuges, was given by President Roosevelt in
a speech made to the Club in the winter of 1903, when he expressed the
opinion that it was the duty of the Government to establish these
refuges and preserves for the benefit of the poor man, the man in
moderate circumstances. The very rich, who are able to buy land, may
establish and care for preserves of their own, but this is beyond the
means of the man of moderate means; and, unless the State and Federal
Governments establish such reservations, a time is at hand when the poor
man will have no place to go where he can find game to hunt. The
establishment o