here are positively _no ill effects
to fear_. Wild animals that are _closely_ confined generation after
generation are bound to deteriorate physically; but with healthy wild
animals living in large open ranges, feeding and breeding naturally, the
in-breeding that occurs produces no deterioration.

In the twin certainties of over-population, and deterioration from
excessive killing of the good sires, we have to face two new problems of
very decided importance. Nothing short of very radical measures will
provide a remedy. For the immediate future, I can offer a solution.
While it seems almost impossible deliberately to kill females, I think
that the present is a very exceptional case, and one that compels us to
apply the painful remedy that I now propose.

_Premises_:

1.--There are at present _too many_ breeding cows in the Yellowstone
herds.

2.--There are far too few good breeding bulls.

_Conclusion_:--For five years, entirely prohibit the killing of adult
male elk, and kill only females, and young males. This would gradually
diminish the number of calves born each year, by about 2,500, and by the
end of five years it would reduce the number, _and the annual birth_, of
females to a figure sufficiently limited that the herds could be
maintained on existing ranges.

_Corollary_.--At the end of five years, stop killing females, and kill
only _young_ males. This plan would permit a large number of bull elk to
mature; and then the largest and strongest animals would do the
breeding,--just as Nature always intends shall be done.

* * * * *

SOUTH AMERICA

Of all the big-game regions of the earth, South America is the poorest.
Of hoofed game she possesses only a dozen species that are worth the
attention of sportsmen; and like all other animal life in that land of
little game, they are desperately hard to find. In South America you
must work your heart out in order to get either game or specimens that
will be worth showing.

At present, we need not worry about the marsh deer, the pampas deer, the
guemal, or the venado, nor the tapir, jaguar, ocelot and bears. All
these species are abundantly able to take care of themselves; and to
find and kill any one of them is a man's task. In Patagonia the natives
do wastefully slaughter the guanacos; and there are times also when
great numbers of guanacos come down in winter to certain mountain lakes,
presumably in search of food, and peri