eir furs.

[Illustration: "There is no recovery of an extinct species. Conservation
or devastation--which shall it be? Common sense demands the regulation
of hunting in such a way that our wild life will persist as a permanent
asset." _Western Wild Life Call_, published by the California Associated
Charities for the Conservation of Wild Life.]

Now we may travel for days through the remote and still unsettled parts
of our country and see very little life of any kind except birds and
the smaller animals, such as squirrels. Occasionally we may start up a
deer that flees away from us like the wind. Still more rarely we come
upon a bear and are fortunate if we get even the merest sight of him
before he is gone.

The fear of man has spread among all the wild creatures. There is good
reason for this fear, because man has completely exterminated some
species and so reduced the numbers of others that careful protection
will be needed to save them. Travelers tell us that in those lands where
man rarely goes the wild creatures have little fear of him.

[Illustration: _L. A. Huffman, Miles City, Mont._
Why the buffalo have nearly disappeared from the land.]

The story of the slaughter of the buffalo is known to us all. Once this
noble animal roamed from the Alleghenies to the Rocky Mountains.
Countless thousands were killed merely for their hides, and other
thousands were killed for sport. Finally, when they were almost gone,
people awoke to the importance of saving them. Several small herds, not
more than a few hundred in number, that had escaped the hunters were
placed under protection and now they are slowly increasing.

[Illustration: _American Museum of Natural History_
A group of Roosevelt elk.]

The grizzly, king of bears, was once abundant in parts of the Rocky
Mountains and upon the Pacific slope, but now he is found only in the
Yellowstone Park region. The man who killed the last specimen in
California is proud of his great achievement.

Of all the elk which once spread over the western part of our country,
only a few remain outside of the Yellowstone region. A protected herd
exists in the San Joaquin Valley, California, and another small herd
roams through the wilder parts of the northern Coast Ranges. The
antelope, so common on the plains only a few years ago, are all gone
except for small, scattered herds in the more remote parts of the West.

Of the many fur-bearing animals which once inha