Our Vanishing Wild Life: Its Extermination and PreservationHornaday, William T. (William Temple)
History
Our Vanishing Wild Life: Its Extermination and Preservation
Hornaday, William T. (William Temple)
Game-laws -- United States; Wildlife conservation -- United States
_The Altai Mountains_, of western China, contain the magnificent
Siberian argali, the grandfather of all sheep species, whose horns must
be seen to be believed. Through a quest for that species the Russian
military authorities played upon Mr. George L. Harrison and his comrade
a very grim and unsportsmanlike joke. At the frontier military post, on
the Russo-Chinese border, the two Americans were courteously halted,
hospitably entertained, and _prevented_ from going into the
argali-infested mountains that loomed up before them only a few miles
away! The Russian officers said:
"Sheep? Why, if you really want sheep, we will send out some of our
brave soldiers to shoot some for you; but there is no need for _you_ to
take the trouble to go after them!"
After Mr. Harrison and his comrade had spent $5,000, and traveled half
way around the world for those sheep, that is in brief the story of how
the cup of Tantalus was given them by the Russians, actually _at their
goal_! As spoil-sports, those Russian officers were the champions of the
world.
Seven hundred miles southeastward of the Altai Mountains of western
China, guarded by the dangerous hostility of savage native tribes, there
exists and awaits the scientific explorer, according to report, an
undiscovered wild horse. The Bicolored Wild Horse is black and white,
and joy awaits the zoologist or sportsman who sees it first. Evidently
it will not soon be exterminated by modern rifles.
_The Impenetrable Forests_.--Although the mountains of central Asia will
in time be cleared of their big game,--when by hook and by crook the
natives secure plenty of modern firearms,--there are places in the Far
East that we know will contain big game forever and a day. Take the
Malay Peninsula, Borneo and Sumatra as examples.
Mr. C. William Beebe, who recently has visited the Far East, has
described how the state of Selangor, between Malacca and Penang, has
taken on many airs of improvement since 1878, and sections of Sarawak
Territory are being cut down and burned for the growing of rubber.
Despite this I am trying to think that those developments menace the
total volume of the wild life of those regions but little. I wonder if
those tangled, illimitable, ever-renewing jungles yet know that their
faces have been scratched. White men never will exterminate the big game
of the really dense jungles of the eastern tropics; but with enough
axes, snares, guns and cartridges _the natives_ may be able to
accomplish it!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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