The Wilderness of North America Former and Existing Ranges of the Elk Map Showing the Disappearance of the Lion States and Provinces Requiring Resident Licenses. Eighteen States Prohibit the Sale of Game Map Used in Campaign for Bayne Law United States National Game Preserves Bird Reservations on the Gulf Coast and Florida Marsh Island and Adjacent Preserves Most Important Game Preserves of Africa * * * * * OUR VANISHING WILD LIFE PART I. EXTERMINATION CHAPTER I THE FORMER ABUNDANCE OF WILD LIFE _"By my labors my vineyard flourished. But Ahab came. Alas! for Naboth."_ In order that the American people may correctly understand and judge the question of the extinction or preservation of our wild life, it is necessary to recall the near past. It is not necessary, however, to go far into the details of history; for a few quick glances at a few high points will be quite sufficient for the purpose in view. Any man who reads the books which best tell the story of the development of the American colonies of 1712 into the American nation of 1912, and takes due note of the wild-life features of the tale, will say without hesitation that when the American people received this land from the bountiful hand of Nature, it was endowed with a magnificent and all-pervading supply of valuable wild creatures. The pioneers and the early settlers were too busy even to take due note of that fact, or to comment upon it, save in very fragmentary ways. Nevertheless, the wild-life abundance of early American days survived down to so late a period that it touched the lives of millions of people now living. Any man 55 years of age who when a boy had a taste for "hunting,"--for at that time there were no "sportsmen" in America,--will remember the flocks and herds of wild creatures that he saw and which made upon his mind many indelible impressions. "Abundance" is the word with which to describe the original animal life that stocked our country, and all North America, only a short half-century ago. Throughout every state, on every shore-line, in all the millions of fresh water lakes, ponds and rivers, on every mountain range, in every forest, _and even on every desert_, the wild flocks and herds held sway. It was impossible to go beyond the settled haunts of civilized man and escape them.