Practically all other large game has alarmingly decreased, and its
extermination 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 any region occupied for farming and stock-raising
purposes is incompatible with such use. Thus the extermination of
the bison 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 wastefulness which
has heretofore largely characterized the handling of our wild life.
A like disregard for the future has been shown in the pursuit of the
sea mammals. The whaling and 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
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 abundant on the coast of southern
California, are nearly or quite gone, and the sea otter of the North
Pacific is dangerously near extinction.
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