reeless regions of the North; but his
room is always preferable to his company, because he, too, is a
destroyer of big game.

I am tempted to try to map out roughly what are to-day the unopened and
undestroyed wild haunts of big game in North America. In doing this,
however, I warn the reader not to be deceived into thinking that because
game still exists in those regions, those areas therefore constitute a
permanent preserve and safe breeding-ground for large mammals. That is
very, very far from being the case. The further "opening up" of the
wilderness areas, as I shall call them for convenience, can and surely
will quickly wipe out their big game; for throughout nine-tenths of
those areas it holds to life by very slender threads.

To-day the unopened and undestroyed wilderness areas of North America,
wherein large mammals still live in a normal wild state, are in general
as follows:

THE ARCTIC BARREN GROUNDS, or Arctic Prairies, north of the limit of
trees, embracing the Barren Grounds of northern Canada, the great arctic
archipelago, Ellesmere, Melville and Grant Lands and Greenland. This
region is the home of the musk-ox and three species of arctic caribou.

THE ALASKA-YUKON REGION, inhabited by the moose, white mountain sheep,
mountain goat, four species of caribou, and half a dozen species of
Alaska brown, grizzly and black bears.

NORTHERN ONTARIO, QUEBEC, LABRADOR AND NEWFOUNDLAND, inhabited by moose,
woodland caribou, white-tailed deer and black bear.

BRITISH COLUMBIA, inhabited by a magnificent big-game fauna embracing
the moose, elk, caribou of two species, white sheep, black sheep,
big-horn sheep, mule deer, white-tailed deer, mountain goat, grizzly,
black and inland white bears.

THE SIERRA MADRE OF MEXICO, containing jaguar, puma, _grizzly_ and black
bears, mule deer, white-tailed deer, antelope, mountain sheep and
peccaries.

I have necessarily omitted all those regions of the United States and
Canada that still contain a remnant of big game, but have been literally
"shot to pieces" by gunners.

In the United States and southern Canada there are about fifteen
localities which contain a supply of big game sufficient that a
conscientious sportsman might therein hunt and kill one head per year
with a clear conscience. _All others should be closed for five years_!
Here is the list of availables; and regarding it there will be about as
many opinions as there are big-game sportsmen:

*