Show 4 1 mp N 0 g M M 4 M M ss Q Z V VA 7 V I 1 I 1 7 K ut Z 0 herd of elk in rocky mountain foothills prepared by the national geographic society Bo clety washington D C LIE days of wild animals in any aman region are numbered whenever jl man takes possession of it IL this Is shown roost most plainly by the history of wild creatures in north amor amer lea ica at the time of its ita discovery disco very and occupation by europeans this continent and the bordering seas teemed with an almost incredible profusion of 0 large mammalian life the hordes of 0 game animals which roamed the primeval forst forests and plains of this continent were the marvel of early explorers and have been equated equaled in historic times only in africa even beyond the limit of trees on the desolate arctic barrens vast herdd containing hundreds of thousands of caribou drifted from one feedle ground to another sharing their range with numberless smaller companies of musk oxen southward from the arctic barrens in the neighboring forests ests of spruce tamarack birches and aspens ashens were multitudes of woodland caribou and moose still farther south bouth in the superb forests of eastern north america and ranging thence over the limitless onen oden plains of the west were untold millions of buffalo elk and white tailed deer with the th prong horned antelope replacing the white tails on the western plains with tills this profusion of large game which afforded a superabundance of feed there was n corresponding abundance 04 0 large carnivores carn ivores as wolves coyotes coy coyotes otei black and grizzly hears bears mountain lions and lynxes black bears were everywhere except in the open plains and nume numerous rolus species of grizzlies grizzlier grizz lies occupied all the mountainous western part of the continent fur bearers including beavers bearers muskrats land otters sea otters fishers L rs martens minks foxes and others were so plentiful in the new world that immediately after the colonization of the united states and canada a large part of the worlds supply of furs was obtained here the wealth of in the seas along the shore of north america almost equaled that on the land on the east coast there were many maby millions of harp and hooded seals and walruses while the greenland right and other whales were extremely eit remely abundant ott on the west nest coast were millions of fur seals sea lions sea elephants and walruses with an equal abundance of whales and hundreds of thou sands of sea otters when game was waa abundant many of the chroniclers dealing with explorations and life on the frontier during the early period of the occupy tion of america gave gaie interesting de tails concerning the game animals allouez says that in 1680 between luke lake erle crie and lake baligan michigan tl jhb prairie were filled with an incredible number of bears wapiti white lulled deer and turkeys on which the lie wolves made fierce war he fie adds lint on a number of occasions tills game was so little wild that it was debes sary shots to protect the party from it IL perrot states that luring during the winter of 1070 1071 1671 2400 moose wore were snored on the great Manito ulin island at the hend head of luke huron other oilier travelers een down to the lost last century gle give similar accounts of the abundance of game the original buffolo herds have been estimated to have cont contained almed from CO 0 to 60 WW un mals and in 1870 it was estimated chait hut about 5 still survived A number of men now nov living hi ing were privileged arh urged to see some of the great lipids of the tl est before they were finally destroyed ll it Is 1 pro probable liable tant antelope were even mire mare abundant on the than I 1 fi tiffalo the hitte r heing being birge tin balnek lilii ti lii were to bp seen at zi ent whereas wh smaller fini uller d might be by bv leed tim of nf animal life found by our WOR ns one of the lie great real of fit the new world drown hulmn from the lie first tile lie eark was little depleted up tit to will in it century lie ibisi one hundred ars u however t lie ly y of the conti benl eni mid ollier ti gether with i stent lity it commercial de ennd fm fi line liaw lim HP an eitt ohp litiff oln elk antl fin fill eli cani po me IP rd to a fritt lor of nf their former coun countless fless irmal fill 11 ther other largie game ims ilc eased and Us its exter ester has been partly stayed only by the recent enforcement of protective laws it Is quite true that the presence of wild buffalo for instance in tiny duy region occupied for farming and stock raising purposes Is incompatible for such use thus the extermination minn mi nation tion of the bison na as a denizen of our western plains was inevitable the destruction however of these noble game animals by millions for their hides only furnishes a notable example of the wanton usefulness which has heretofore largely characterized the handling of our wild wila life A like disregard for the future has been shown in the pursuit of the sea mammals the whaling and seating sealing industries are very ancient extending back for a thousand years or more but the greatest and most ruthless destruction of the whales and seals has come within the lost last century especially through the use of steamships and bomb guns without adequate international protection there Is grave danger that the most valuable of these sea mammals will be exterminated the fur seal and the sea elephant once so BO abundant on tile the coast of southern california are nearly or quite gone and the sea I 1 otter of the north pacific Is dangerously near benr extinction in prehistoric times 1 tile the fossil beds of vie the gret great plains and other parts of the west contain eloquent proofs of the richness and variety of mammal life on this continent at different periods in the past perhaps Perli aps the most wonderful of all these ancient faunas faunal was that revealed by the bones of birds and mammals which had been trapped in the asphalt pits discovered not many years ugo ago in the outskirts of los log angeles calif these bones show that prior to the arrival of the present fauna the plains of southern call fornia swarmed with an astonishing wealth of strange birds and beasts the most notable of these are saber toothed tigers lions much larger than those of africa giant wolves several kinds of bears including the huge cave care bears even larger than the gigantic brown bears of alaska large wild horses camels bison unlike our buffalo tiny antelope the size of a fox mastodons mammoths mam moths with tusks 15 feet long giant ground in addition to many other species large and small with these amazing mammals wens al equally strange birds including among numerous birds of prey a glant ellke species far larger than tiny any condor peacocks and many others the geologically recent exis existence tchee ol of this now vanished fauna Is evidenced by the presence in the asphalt pits of bones of the gray fox the monn mountain tain lion the close relative of the bobcat and coyote us well as the condor w which hicl still frequent th that at region a and nd thus link the hie past with the present presen t the only traces of the ancient vegetation discovered in these asphalt pits are a pine and two species of juniper which are members of the existing flora there Is reason for believing that primitive man occupied california and other parts of the west during at least the latter part of the period when the fauna of the asphalt pits still flourished the folklore folk lore of the locally restricted california indians indiana contains detailed descriptions of a beast which Is unmistakably a bison probably the bison of the asphalt pits the discovery in these pits of the bones of a gigantic ellko bird of prey of fur far greater size alzo than the condor Is even more startling since the folklore folk lore lare of the eskimos and indians of most of the tribes from neang straits to and the rocky mountain region abound in tales rales of if the he thunder thunderbird bird a gigantic bard of prey like a mighty eagle ca capable liable of carrying away people in ltd its talons two such colnel dents suggest the possibility vint the accounts of f the bison and the thunderbird thunder bird are really based on the originals ol of the lie beds and have been pa pas stil down in legen thiry history gh ninny thousands of years |