provided that we move promptly for their protection.  The pronghorn is a wonderfully clever and adaptive animal, crawling under barb-wire fences, and thus avoiding one of the greatest enemies of Western life.  Last summer I was surprised beyond measure to see the large herds of twenty to forty pronghorn antelopes still surviving on the Laramie plains, fenced in on all sides by the wires of the great Four-Bar Ranch, part of which I believe are stretched illegally.

RECENT DISAPPEARANCE.

I need not dwell on the astonishingly rapid diminution of our larger animals in the last few years; it would be like “carrying coals to Newcastle” to detail personal observations before this Club, which is full of men of far greater experience and knowledge than myself.  On the White River Plateau Forest Reserve, which is destined to be the Adirondacks of Colorado, with which many of you are familiar, the deer disappeared in a period of four years.  Comparatively few are left.

The most thoroughly devastated country I know of is the Uintah Mountain Forest Reserve, which borders between southwestern Wyoming and northern Utah.  I first went through this country in 1877.  It was then a wild natural region; even a comparatively few years ago it was bright with game, and a perfect flower garden.  It has felt the full force of the sheep curse.  I think any one of you who may visit this country now will agree that this is not too strong a term, and I want to speak of the sheep question from three standpoints:  First, as of a great and legitimate industry in itself; second, from the economic standpoint; third, from the standpoint of wild animals.

GENERAL RESULTS OF GRAZING.

The formerly beautiful Uintah Mountain range presents a terrible example of the effects of prolonged sheep herding.  The under foliage is entirely gone.  The sheep annually eat off the grass tops and prevent seeding down; they trample out of life what they do not eat; along the principal valley routes even the sage brush is destroyed.  Reforesting by the upgrowth of young trees is still going on to a limited extent, but is in danger.  The water supply of the entire Bridger farming country, which is dependent upon the Uintah Mountains as a natural reservoir, is rapidly diminishing; the water comes in tremendous floods in the spring, and begins to run short in the summer, when it is most needed.  The consequent effects upon both fish and wild animals are well known to you.  No other animal will feed after the sheep.  It is no exaggeration to say, therefore, that the sheep in this region are the enemies of every living thing.

BALANCE OF NATURE.

Even the owner cannot much longer enjoy his range, because he is operating against the balance of nature.  The last stage of destruction which these innocent animals bring about has not yet been reached, but it is approaching; it is the stage in which there is no food left for the sheep themselves.  I do not know how many pounds of food a sheep consumes in course of a year—­it cannot be much less than a ton—­but say it is only half a ton, how many acres of dry western mountain land are capable of producing half a ton a year when not seeding down?  As long as the consumption exceeds the production of the soil, it is only a question of time when even the sheep will no longer find subsistence.