Show c ta sl f I c I 1 i AF I I t I 3 z t tJ a k J 6 tF I I ra Z t e it K 34 ix A V s Procured II by the National w Washington V. V Ci CN I f I M MI days of wild wIM TilE I r region are numbered er whenever JL man takes possession oM Is shown most hythe history his tory Cory of or wild In Jn North orth Amer ADler ica At the time of on lt y Y and ami rby Europeans tilts tills continent conti rent nent and the ithe bordering seas teemed alth an en almost almo t Incredible profusion of ot large urge mammalian life The rhe hordes homes of game gome which the primeval uE al and plains of tills tills' continent con were the mor marvel of earty eathy ex ex- and have been equaled In bl torte times only In Africa of ot tress treiS s.-on s. on liven I en beyond the Unlit limit the he desolate Arctic barrens vast ast ast containing hundreds of thousand or of I n caribou drifted 1 from one ground to 10 another sharing their I with numberless f or f tram from the Antic An 11 musk Jn Southward ord tic l In the tile neighborly i Tor rr nr nn 1 i of ot prune tamarack were l multitudes of w inert 1 Larther caribou and mo sp Still forests forest or of n i south Fouth In the super superb and ranging thence them over o the Itle limitless oven ouen 11 plain plain- f of the West Rest were untold millions n nr 01 baTule white tailed deer with elk lk and nm the horned antelope ope prong prong- prong horned white tails on tl the e western plain Will this profusion rf of lane larl grime a of superabundance which afforded a feed fed there was a corresponding corre bun bun- dance e of large carnivores as 88 Wf wo e e bears nl mountain moun and ond grizzly coyotes s block k b bears rs shack Black tain taim lions and In es In the open were were e everywhere species t at t und and numerous occupied nil 1111 th the mountainous western port of the he continent beavers bearers Fur bearers Including muskrats otters otter J fibers fib Ach- era ers martens minks foxes sand find others were so EO plentiful In the 1 New world that Immediately after the tie Uon of the United States and Canada of supply worlds world's a large part of f the furs fors was obtained here liere The wealth of mammal life lite In the theseas teas seas along the shore Ellore of North ort America the land On almost equaled that on mil millions were WE're many the tile east coast const there hooded seals Feals and lions of harp barp and right walruses while the Greenland extremely abundant and other whales were lant Ilant On Oil the west coast wel were millions of fur tur seals hen lions tea elephant noun equal with on an and walruses hundreds of U thousands thou fU- fU dance of whalen s and nud sands ID tl of fr ben ettere tr When Ga Game Was WI Abundant Many ony of the s dealing with explorations exploration and ln life on 00 the frontier during tire tide early period of f the occupation lion tion of ot I gave e a e Interesting details details details de de- tails r- r rm m the game animals f 1 In fn HiSO 80 between l een la e Erie Cries und and Luke Michigan were re filled with 1 en an of dears wapiti white tailed deer arc aTilt turkeys on which the I wol woh e w s prude mild war lie e adds that on tin a 0 n of ot occasions this tl some gime me was vias O 5 o little wild that It ft was necessary necessary sar sary to tire lire protect the party i from It states that winter of 90 1 1171 il 2400 noose were era snares 1 on the Great 1 at the Ibe head of Lawn n. n Otter Otier tia lers ev n n down dorm to the la last t can can- a- a of ot tle l In- mry give fUe he similar a of Kame TI The Tle e original flu 10 have been t estimated In to ha bave c tl from 3 34 II MI t w 4 animals and noll It is 1 Sill It n III e lt t fd that about shout f 5 Mil OK still I sur su survived A olmen ol ot mt oven men n nn nr nil r r living 11 s ere Ne privileged pS to see Iee some nf of the gees nerds nerd i of the West Pest before they tits were finally destroyed It I to Ale ible hat antelope were en e more abundant OR on the plains than Ihan were ere buffalo The rhe titter latter large and anti l Mil k k w wire re to he be seen nt ot great e. e whereas VIP the smaller camouflaged animals might be passed hv hy unnoticed The wealth of life lite found ly Iy our forebears was sae ors one of the great natural resources of f the New l world freely drawn pon upon from hom the first the stock tock was little depleted up to within a century During the tte last one hundred years yearl however the rapidly rapid rapid- ly 11 increasing occupation 4 of f t the continent continent conti conti- nent anI and other causes together pith pitha Ith a R steadily lIl Increasing commercial demand demand de de- have bave mand for foi animal products an appalling effect The buffalo b elk lk and antelope pe ate ale reduced d to a pitiful fraction of rf their former countless numbers Practically all other large lorge game has haa alarmingly decreased and IU extermination ester exter has been partly stayed only by the recent enforcement of prot protective protective tive life lawe laws It is quite true that the presence of wilt wild buffalo for Instance In jn any region occupied for tor farming Is Incompatible incompatible and stock raising purposes for such use Thus the extermination exter exter- of the bison bloo cs III a denizen of cf our western plains was Inevitable The destruction however of these noble game rame animals by millions for their theira a n fIX fr i- i tiMEs tiME's on only I. I rile e. e olnie f f be bew w t s has heretofore 1 characterized It I handling dt df or lid I Ife A like disregard r l tho future tract luw i been hown shown In the te of ot the MaThe sea Ma I The wJ and nd sealing nettling Industries are very ry an ancient lent extend ling hag I bark back for II a years or but the th and roost moat nith- nith less 1 M i destruction of t the whales and seals has come tIle within I the last centary cen- cen n tOry tary el V through the we use of el steamships and M lomb I guns Without t adequate a l protection i there U is rave danger that the most valuable lo ble of ot these sea willbe will willbe I be exterminate The tar for treat e t and andI I the sea elephant se J t once no so abundant orthe on or it th the coast coast coast-cf of c tit hern California are arc nearly er r quite gone Jone find and tie Oe sea sen seni i If the north BOrth Pacific is dangerously danger danger- near extinction In err Time of the Great Grent fiend lInd parts l of ot the West Vest eloquent of ot the richness nil raC variety or of f mammal life lite on this coo con at different JM periods In the past llast Perhaps the he Most t wonderful of all al 1 these ancient faunas faunae was that revealed re we fey W t the bones ot of f buds and am ant which mammals had hall teen been en trapped lithe li In the he asphalt phS pis discovered wel not soot man l bears ears ap ape In do titre outskirts ot of Lot Los An OJ Calif These boxes show chow thai bat to the arrival al ot of f the presen present Sauna the plains of southern iQ Call swarmed with an AD of birds and beasts beast j II The Tho most notable amiable of these Are saber eaber k tigers much larger than thai of f Africa giant wolves S peral yera rul kinds of Jt bear bears Including the hugs hug r c cave I bear eyen ven larger time than the 1 brown beers bears of Alaska tars large e I horses camels j y our var buffalo tiny Y antelope the cla aia of c fox mastodons mammoths wit I tusks tUSH 15 13 feet fee long giant ground sloth in addition 1 to many o other oilier er ape cI cles and small arnall With 1111 these amazing mammals mammal wen fttIe equally strange birds Including among amous numerous lairds of prey a giant gl gi glant gl ant species far target barge than any fIny condor condo peacocks an ant runny many others The file geologically tolI Rent recent existence o othis of this now vanished fauna Ilona is evidences evidenced by hy the 1 In tI the asphalt pits pita o ol of bones hones of the gray groy fox fez lX the tho mountain the close relative of the bobcat end and co coyote ote us well veil as the condor which bleh still frequent that region and aDd thus link the past post with wit I the present Tea TLe only tm traces es of the ancient lege vege vegetation tation discovered In these asphalt pits area pine and species species-of species of oC Juniper which are members of the existing flora The There re Is reason for believing that thai primitive man occupied California and ond other parts of e the West during daring at least the latter laUer part of the period when hen ll the e fauna of ot the asphalt pits pita cUll till flourished The lore folk of ot the locally r restricted California Indiana contains detailed descriptions of Jt a beast which Is Js unmistakably a bison probably the bIson of the asphalt pits pit The ery discovery In these pits of the bones of a gigantic bird of prey pre of far greater eater size than thao the Ule condor l is II even more startling since the lore folk of the tIle Eskimos end and Indians In 10 of most of the tribes tribe from Bering DerIng straits to California and the Rocky Docky Mountain r region on abound In tales of the a thunder a gigan giann gigantic tic Uc bird of prey like a mighty eagle capable of carrying away awa people eople In Its III talons Two such suggest suggest sug sug- gest gelt the possibility that the accounts of the bison end and the bird are really based on the originate orl of the asphalt beds bed and have hn been passed down in 10 legendary history through many mon tho thousands of years |