ellowstone-Wyoming elk, it seems imperative that the national
government should expend between $30,000 and $40,000 in buying back from
ranchmen certain areas in the Jackson valley, particularly a tract known
as "the swamp," and others on the surrounding foothills where the herds
annually go to graze in winter, A measure to render this possible was
presented to Congress in the winter of 1912, and without opposition an
appropriation of $45,000 was made.

The splendid photographs of the elk herds that recently have been made
by S.N. Leek, of Jackson Hole, clearly reveal the fact that the herds
now consist chiefly of cows, calves, yearlings and young bulls with
small antlers. In one photograph showing about twenty-five hundred elk,
there are not visible even half a dozen pairs of antlers that belong to
adult bulls. There should be a hundred! This condition means that the
best bulls, with the finest heads, are constantly being selected and
killed by sportsmen and others who want their heads; and the young,
immature bulls are left to do the breeding that alone will sustain the
species.

[Illustration: HUNGRY ELK IN JACKSON HOLE, WYOMING
Part of a Herd of About 2,500 Head, being fed on hay, in the Winter of
1910-11 Note the Absence of Adult Bulls. Copyright, 1911, by S.N.
Leek]

It is a well-known principle in stock-breeding that sires should be
fully adult, of maximum strength, and in the prime of life. No
stockbreeder in his senses ever thinks of breeding from a youthful,
immature sire. The result would be weak offspring not up to the
standard.

This inexorable law of inheritance and transmission is just as much a
law for the elk, moose and deer of North America as it is for domestic
cattle and horses. If the present conditions in the Wyoming elk herds
continue to prevail for several generations, as sure as time goes on we
shall see a marked deterioration in the size and antlers of the elk.

If the foundation principles of stock-breeding are correct, then it is
impossible to maintain any large-mammal species at its zenith of size,
strength and virility by continuous breeding of the young and immature
males. By some sportsmen it is believed that through long-continued
killing of the finest and largest males, the red deer of Europe have
been growing smaller; but on that point I am not prepared to offer
evidence.

In regard to the in-breeding of the elk herds in large open parks and
preserves throughout North America, t