una of the great
plains and Rocky Mountains was really discovered; but the bison
millions, the antelope millions, the mule deer, the mountain sheep and
mountain goat were there, all the time. In the early days, the millions
of pinnated grouse and quail of the central states attracted no serious
attention from the American people-at-large; but they lived and
flourished just the same, far down in the seventies, when the greedy
market gunners systematically slaughtered them, and barreled them up for
"the market," while the foolish farmers calmly permitted them to do it.

We obtain the best of our history of the former abundance of North
American wild life first from the pages of Audubon and Wilson; next,
from the records left by such pioneers as Lewis and Clark, and last from
the testimony of living men. To all this we can, many of us, add
observations of our own.

To me the most striking fact that stands forth in the story of American
wild life one hundred years ago is the wide extent and thoroughness of
its distribution. Wide as our country is, and marvelous as it is in the
diversity of its climates, its soils, its topography, its flora, its
riches and its poverty, Nature gave to each square mile and to each acre
a generous quota of wild creatures, according to its ability to maintain
living things. No pioneer ever pushed so far, or into regions so
difficult or so remote, that he did not find awaiting him a host of
birds and beasts. Sometimes the pioneer was not a good hunter; usually
he was a stupid fisherman; but the "game" was there, nevertheless. The
time was when every farm had its quota.

The part that the wild life of America played in the settlement and
development of this continent was so far-reaching in extent, and so
enormous in potential value, that it fairly staggers the imagination.
From the landing of the Pilgrims down to the present hour the wild game
has been the mainstay and the resource against starvation of the
pathfinder, the settler, the prospector, and at times even the
railroad-builder. In view of what the bison millions did for the
Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, Kansas and Texas, it is only right and square
that those states should now do something for the perpetual preservation
of the bison species and all other big game that needs help.

For years and years, the antelope millions of the Montana and Wyoming
grass-lands fed the scout and Indian-fighter, freighter, cowboy and
surveyor, ranchman _a