THE ENGLISH SPARROW.—In the United States, the English sparrow is a national sorrow, almost too great to be endured. It is a bird of plain plumage, low tastes, impudent disposition and persistent fertility. Continually does it crowd out its betters, or pugnaciously drive them away, and except on very rare occasions it eats neither insects nor weed seeds. It has no song, and in habits it is a bird of the street and the gutter. There is not one good reason why it should exist in this country. If it were out of the way, our native insect-eaters of song and beauty could return to our lawns and orchards. The English sparrow is a nuisance and a pest, and if it could be returned to the land of its nativity we would gain much.

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CHAPTER XXXVI

NATIONAL AND STATE GAME PRESERVES, AND BIRD REFUGES

Out West, there is said to be a "feeling" that game and forest conservation has "gone far enough." In Montana, particularly, the National Wool-Growers' Association has for some time been firmly convinced that "the time has come to call a halt." Oh, yes! A halt on the conservation of game and forests; but not on the free grazing of sheep on the public domain. No, not even while those same sheep are busily growing wool that is so fearfully and wonderfully conserved by a sky-high tariff that the truly poor Americans are forced to wear garments made of shoddy because they cannot afford to buy clothing made of wool! (This is the testimony of a responsible clothing merchant, in 1912.)

We can readily understand the new hue and cry against conservation that the sheep men now are raising. Of course they are against all new game and forest reserves,—unless the woolly hordes are given the right to graze in them!

Many men of the Great West,—the West beyond the Great Plains,—are afflicted with a desire to do as they please with the natural resources of that region. That is the great curse that to-day rests upon our game. When the nearest game warden is 50 miles away, and big game is only 5 miles away, it is time for that game to take to the tall timber.

But in the West, and East and South, there are many men and women who believe in reasonable conservation, and deplore destruction. We have not by any means reached the point where we can think of stopping in the making of game preserves, or forest preserves. Of the former, we have scarcely begun to make. The majority of the states of our Union know of state game preserves only by hearsay. But the time is coming when the states will come forward, and perform the serious duty that they neglect to-day.

Let the statesmen of America be not afraid of making too many game preserves! For the next year, one per day would be none too many! Remember, that on one hand we have the Army of Destruction, and on the other the expectant millions of Posterity. No executor or trustee ever erred in safeguarding an estate too carefully. Fifty years hence, if your successors and mine find that too much land has been set aside for the good of the people, they can mighty easily restore any surplus to the public domain, and at a vastly increased valuation. Give Posterity at least one chance to debate the question: "Were our forefathers too liberal in the making of game and forest reserves?"

We can always carve up any useless surplus of the public domain, and restore it to commercial uses; but none of the men of to-day will live long enough to see so strange a proceeding carried into effect.

The game preserves of the United States government are so small (with the exception of the Yellowstone and Glacier Parks), that very few people ever hear of them, and fewer still know of them in detail. It seems to be quite time that they should be set forth categorically; and it is most earnestly to be hoped that this list soon will be doubled.

THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK.—This was the first of the national parks and game preserves of the United States. Some of our game preserves are not exactly national parks, but this is both, by Act of Congress.

It is 62 miles long from north to south, 54 miles wide and contains a total area of 3,348 square miles, or 2,142,720 acres. Its western border lies in Idaho, and along its northern border a narrow strip lies in Montana. It is under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior, and it is guarded by a detachment of cavalry from the United States Army. The Superintendent is now a commissioned officer of the United States Army. The business of protecting the game is performed partly by four scouts, who are civilians specially engaged for that purpose, but the number has always been totally inadequate to the work to be performed.

At least one-half of the public interest attaching to the Yellowstone Park is based upon its wild animals. There, the average visitor sees, for the first time, wild mountain sheep, antelope, mule deer, elk, grizzly bears and white pelicans, roaming free. But for the tragedy of the Park bison herd,—slaughtered by poachers from 1890 to 1893, from 300 head down to 30—visitors would see wild bison also; but now the few wild bison remaining keep as far as possible from the routes of tourist travel. The bison were slaughtered through an inadequate protective force, and (then) utterly inadequate laws.

Lieut.-Col. L.M. Brett, U.S.A., Superintendent of the Yellowstone Park advises me (July 29, 1912) that the wild big game in the Yellowstone Park in the summer of 1912, is as shown below, based on actual counts and estimates of the Park scouts, and particularly Scout McBride. "The estimates of buffalo, elk, antelope, deer, sheep and bear are based on actual counts, or very close observations, and are pretty nearly correct." (Col. Brett).

Wild Buffalo 49 Moose 550 Elk (in summer) 35,000 Antelope 500 Mountain Sheep 210 Mule Deer 400 White-tailed Deer 100 Grizzly Bears 50 Black Bears 100 Pumas 100 Gray Wolves none Coyotes 400 Pelicans 1,000

The actual count of 49 wild bison in the Park, 10 of which are calves of 1912, will be to all friends of the bison a delightful surprise. Heretofore the little band had seemed to be stationary, which if true would soon mean a decline.

The history of the wild game of the Yellowstone Park is blackened by two occurrences, and one existing fact. The fact is: the town of Gardiner is situated on the northern boundary of the Park, in the State of Montana. In Gardiner there are a number of men, armed with rifles, who toward game have the gray-wolf quality of mercy.

The first stain is the massacre of the 270 wild bison for their heads and robes, already noted. The second blot is the equally savage slaughter in the early winter of 1911, by some of the people of Gardiner, reinforced by so-called sportsmen from other parts of the state, of all the park elk they could kill,—bulls, cows and calves,—because a large band wandered across the line into the shambles of Gardiner, on Buffalo Flats.

If the people of Gardiner can not refrain from slaughtering the game of the Park—the very animals annually seen by 20,000 visitors to the Park,—then it is time for the American people to summon the town of Gardiner before the bar of public opinion, to show cause why the town should not be wiped off the map.

The 35,000 elk that summer in the Park are compelled in winter to migrate to lower altitudes in order to find grass that is not under two feet of snow. In the winter of 1911-12, possibly 5,000 went south, into Jackson Hole, and 3,000 went northward into Montana. The sheep-grazing north of the Park, and the general settlement by ranchmen of Jackson Hole, have deprived the elk herds of those regions of their natural food. For several years past, up to and including the winter of 1910-11, some thousands of weak and immature elk have perished in the Jackson Hole country, from starvation and exposure. The ranchmen of that region have had terrible times,—in witnessing the sufferings of thousands of elk tamed by hunger, and begging in piteous dumb show for the small and all-too-few haystacks of the ranchmen.

The people of Jackson Hole, headed by S.N. Leek, the famous photographer and lecturer on those elk herds, have done all that they could do in the premises. The spirit manifested by them has been the exact reverse of that manifested in Gardiner. To their everlasting credit, they have kept domestic sheep out of the Jackson Valley,—by giving the owners of invading herds "hours" in which to get their sheep "all out, and over the western range."

In 1909, the State of Wyoming spent in feeding starving elk $5,000 In 1911, the State of Wyoming spent in feeding starving elk 5,000 In 1911, the U.S. Government appropriated for feeding starving elk, and exporting elk $20,000 In 1912, the Camp-Fire Club of Detroit gave, for feeding hungry elk 100 In 1910-11, about 3,000 elk perished in Jackson Hole In 1911-12, Mr. Leek's photographs of the elk herds showed an alarming absence of mature bulls, indicating that now the most of the breeding is done by immature males. This means the sure deterioration of the species.

The prompt manner in which Congress responded in the late winter of 1911 to a distress call in behalf of the starving elk, is beyond all ordinary terms of praise. It was magnificent. In fear and trembling, Congress was asked, through Senator Lodge, to appropriate $5,000. Congress and Senator Lodge made it $20,000; and for the first time the legislature of Wyoming appealed for national aid to save the joint-stock herds of Wyoming and the Yellowstone Park.

GLACIER PARK, MONTANA.—In the wild and picturesque mountains of northwestern Montana, covering both sides of the great Continental Divide, there is a region that has been splendidly furnished by the hand of Nature. It is a bewildering maze of thundering peaks, plunging valleys, evergreen forests, glistening glaciers, mirror lakes and roaring mountain streams. Its leading citizens are white mountain goats, mountain sheep, moose, mule deer and white-tailed deer, and among those present are black and grizzly bears galore.

Commercially, the 1,400 square miles of Glacier Park, even with its 60 glaciers and 260 lakes, are worth exactly the price of its big trees, and not a penny more. For mining, agriculture, horticulture and stock-raising, it is a cipher. As a transcendant pleasure ground and recreation wilderness for ninety millions of people, it is worth ninety millions of dollars, and not a penny less. It is a pleasure park of which the greatest of the nations of the earth,—whichever that may be,—might well be overbearingly proud; and its accessibility is almost unbelievable until seen.

This park is bounded on the south by the Great Northern Railway, on the east by the Blackfoot Indian Reservation, on the north by Alberta and British Columbia, and on the west by West Fork of the Flathead River. Horizontally, it contains 1,400 square miles; but as the goat climbs, its area is at least double that. Its valleys are filled and its lakes are encircled by grand forests of Douglas fir, hemlock, spruce, white pine, cedar and larch; and if ever they are destroyed by fire, it will be a national calamity, a century long.

So long as the American people keep out of the poorhouse, let there be no lumber-cutting vandalism in that park, destroying the beauty of every acre of forest that is touched by axe or saw. The greatest beauty of those forests is the forest floor, which lumbering operations would utterly destroy.

Never mind if there is "ripe timber" there! The American nation is not suffering for the dollars that those lovely forest giants would fetch by board measure. What if a tree does fall now and then from old age! We can stand the expense. If Posterity a hundred years hence finds itself lumberless, and wishes to use those trees, then let Posterity pay the price, and take them. We are not suffering for them; and our duty is to save them inviolate, and hand them down as a heritage that we proudly transmit unimpaired.



The friends of wild life are particularly interested in Glacier Park as a national game reservoir, and refuge for wild life. On the north, in Alberta, it is soon to be extended by Waterton Lakes Park.

When I visited Glacier Park, in 1909, with Frederick H. Kennard and Charles H. Conrad, I procured from three intelligent guides their best estimates of the amount of big game then in the Park. The guides were Thomas H. Scott, Josiah Rogers and Walter S. Gibb.[L]

[Footnote L: See Recreation Magazine, May, 1910, p. 213]

They compared notes, and finally agreed upon these figures:

Elk 200 Moose 2,500 Mountain Sheep 700 Mountain Goats 10,500 Grizzly Bears 1,000 to 1,500 Black Bears 2,500 to 3,000

As previously stated, one of the surprising features of this new wonder land is its accessibility. The Great Northern lands you at Belton. A ride of three miles over a good road through a beautiful forest brings you to the foot of Lake McDonald, and in one hour more by boat you are at the hotels at the head of the lake. At that point you are within three hours' horse-back ride of Sperry Glacier and the marvelous panorama that unrolls before you from the top of Lincoln Peak. At the foot of that Peak we saw a big, wild white mountain goat: and another one watched us climb up to the Sperry Glacier.

MT. OLYMPUS NATIONAL MONUMENT.—For at least six years the advocates of the preservation of American wild life and forests vainly desired that the grand mountain territory around Mount Olympus, in northwestern Washington, should be established as a national forest and game preserve. In addition to the preservation of the forests, it was greatly desired that the remnant bands of Olympic wapiti (described as Cervus roosevelti) should be perpetuated. It now contains 1,975 specimens of that variety. In Congress, two determined efforts were made in behalf of the region referred to, but both were defeated by the enemies of forests and wild life.

In an auspicious moment, Dr. T.S. Palmer, Assistant Chief of the Biological Survey, Department of Agriculture, thought of a law under which it would be both proper and right to bring the desired preserve into existence. The law referred to expressly clothes the President of the United States with power to preserve any monumental feature of nature which it clearly is the duty of the state to preserve for all time from the hands of the spoilers.

With the enthusiastic approval and assistance of Representative William E. Humphrey, of Seattle, Dr. Palmer set in motion the machinery necessary to the carrying of the matter before the President in proper form, and kept it going, with the result that on March 2, 1909, President Roosevelt affixed his signature to the document that closed the circuit.

Thus was created the Mount Olympus National Monument, preserving forever 608,640 acres of magnificent mountains, valleys, glaciers, streams and forests, and all the wild creatures living therein and thereon. The people of the state of Washington have good reason to rejoice in the fact that their most highly-prized scenic wonderland, and the last survivors of the wapiti in that state, are now preserved for all coming time. At the same time, we congratulate Dr. Palmer on the brilliant success of his initiative.

THE SUPERIOR NATIONAL GAME AND FOREST PRESERVE.—The people of Minnesota long desired that a certain great tract of wilderness in the extreme northern portion of that state, now well stocked with moose and deer, should be established as a game and forest preserve. Unfortunately, however, the national government could go no farther than to withdraw the lands (and waters) from entry, and declare it a forest reserve. At the right moment, some bright genius proposed that the national government should by executive order create a "forest reserve," and then that the legislature of Minnesota should pass an act providing that every national forest of that state should also be regarded as a state game preserve!

Both those things were done,—almost as soon as said! Mr. Carlos Avery, the Executive Agent of the Board of Game and Fish Commissioners of Minnesota is entitled to great credit for the action of his state, and we have to thank Mr. Gifford Pinchot and President Roosevelt for the executive action that represented the first half of the effort.

The new Superior Preserve is valuable as a game and forest reserve, and nothing else. It is a wilderness of small lakes, marshes, creeks, hummocks of land, scrubby timber, and practically nothing of commercial value. But the wilderness contains many moose, and zoologically, it is for all practical purposes a moose preserve.

In it, in 1908 Mr. Avery saw fifty-one moose in three days, Mr. Fullerton saw 183 in nine days, and Mr. Fullerton estimated the total number of moose in Minnesota as a whole at 10,000 head.

In area it contains 1,420,000 acres, and the creation of this great preserve was accomplished on April 13, 1909.

THE WICHITA NATIONAL GAME PRESERVE.—In the Wichita Mountains, of southwestern Oklahoma, there is a National game preserve containing 57,120 acres. On this preserve is a fenced bison range and a herd of thirty-nine American bison which owe their existence to the initiative of the New York Zoological Society. On March 25, 1905, the Society proposed to the National Government the founding of a range and herd, on a basis that was entirely new. To the Society it seemed desirable that for the encouragement of Congress in the preservation of species that are threatened with extermination, the scientific corporations of America, and private individuals also, should do something more than to offer advice and exhortations to the government.

Accordingly, the Zoological Society offered to present to the Government, delivered on the ground in Oklahoma, a herd of fifteen pure-blood bison as the nucleus of a new national herd, provided Congress would furnish a satisfactory fenced range, and maintain the herd. The offer was at once accepted by Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture, and the Society was invited to propose a site for a range. The Society sent a representative to the Wichita National Forest Reserve, who recommended a range, and made a report upon it, which the Society adopted.

By act of Congress the range was at once established and fenced. Its area is twelve square miles (9,760 acres). In October, 1908, the Zoological Society took from its herd in the Zoological Park nine female and six male bison, and delivered them at the bison range. There were many predictions that all those bison would die of Texas fever within one year; but the parties most interested persisted in trying conclusions with the famous tick of Texas.

Mr. Frank Rush was appointed Warden of the new National Bison Range, and his management has been so successful that only two of the bison died of the fever, the disease has been stamped out, and the herd now contains thirty-nine head. Within five years it should reach the one-hundred mark. Elk, deer and antelope have been placed in the range, and all save the antelope are doing well. The Wichita Bison Range is an unqualified success.

THE MONTANA NATIONAL BISON RANGE.—The opening of the Flathead Indian Reservation to settlement, in 1909, afforded a golden opportunity to locate in that region another national bison herd. Accordingly, in 1908, the American Bison Society formulated a plan by which the establishment of such a range and herd might be brought about. That plan was successfully carried into effect, in 1909 and '10.

The Bison Society proposed to the national government to donate a herd of at least twenty-five bison, provided Congress would purchase a range, fence it and maintain the herd. The offer was immediately accepted, and with commendable promptness Congress appropriated $40,000 with which to purchase the range, and fence it. The Bison Society examined various sites, and finally recommended what was regarded as an ideal location situated near Ravalli, Montana, north of the Jocko River and Northern Pacific Railway, and east of the Flathead River. The nearest stations are Ravalli and Dixon.

The area of the range is about twenty-nine square miles (18,521 acres) and for the purpose that it is to serve it is beautiful and perfect beyond compare. In it the bison herd requires no winter feeding whatever.

In 1910 the Bison Society raised by subscription a fund of $10,526, and with it purchased 37 very perfect pure-blood bison from the famous Conrad herd at Kalispell, 22 of which were females. One gift bison was added by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Goodnight, two were presented by the estate of Charles Conrad, and three were presented from the famous Corbin herd, at Newport, N.H., by the Blue Mountain Forest Association.

Starting with that nucleus (of 43 head) in 1910, the herd has already (1912) increased to 80 head. The herd came through the severe winter of 1911-1912 without having been fed any hay whatever, and the founders of it confidently expect to live to see it increase to one thousand head.

THE GRAND CANYON NATIONAL GAME PRESERVE of northern Arizona, embraces the entire Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, for a meandering distance of 101 miles, and adjacent territory to an extent of 2,333 square miles (1,492,928 acres). Owing to certain conditions, natural and otherwise, it is not the finest place in the world for the peaceful increase of wild game. The Canyon contains a few mountain sheep, and mule deer, but Buckskin Mountain, on the northwestern side, is reeking with mountain lions and gray wolves, and both those species should be shot out of the entire Grand Canyon National Forest. It was on Buckskin and the western wall of the Canyon itself that "Buffalo" Jones, Mr. Charles S. Bird, and their party caught nine live mountain lions, in 1909.

I regret to say that "Buffalo" Jones's catalo experiment on the Kaibab Plateau seems to have met an untimely and disappointing fate. For three years the bison and domestic cattle crossed, and produced a number of cataloes; but in 1911, practically the whole lot was wiped off the earth by cattle rustlers! Mr. Jones thinks that it was guerrillas from southern Utah who murdered his enterprise, partly for the reason that no other persons were within striking distance of the herd.

MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK.—This fine forest park is the great summer outing ground of the people of the state of Washington. Its area is 324 square miles, and as its name implies it embraces Mount Rainier. Easily accessible from Seattle and Tacoma, and fairly well—though not adequately—provided with roads, trails, tent camps, hotels and livery transportation, it is really the Yellowstone Park of the Northwest.

THE YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK in California is so well known that no description of it is necessary. Its area is 1,124 square miles (719,622 acres). Its great value lies in its scenery, but along with that it is a sanctuary for such of the wild mammals and birds of California as will not wander beyond its borders to the certain death that awaits everything that may legally be killed in that state.

CRATER LAKE NATIONAL PARK.—Like all the National Parks of America generally, this one also is a game sanctuary. It is situated on the summit of the Cascade Mountains of Oregon. The wonderful Crater Lake itself is 62 miles from Klamath Falls, 83 miles from Ashland, and it is 6 miles long, 4 miles wide and 200 feet deep. This National Park was created by Act of Congress in 1902. Its area is 249 square miles (159,360 acres), and it contains Columbian black-tailed deer, black bear, the silver-gray squirrel, and many birds, chiefly members of the grouse family. Owing to its lofty elevation, there are few ducks.

THE SEQUOIA AND GENERAL GRANT NATIONAL PARKS were created for the special purpose of preserving the famous groves of "big trees," (Sequoia gigantea). The former is in Tulare County, the latter in Tulare and Fresno counties, California, on the western slope of the Sierra Nevadas. The area of Sequoia Park is 169,605 acres, and that of General Grant Park is 2,560 acres. They are under the control of the Interior Department. These Parks are important bird refuges, and Mr. Walter Fry, Forest Ranger, reports in them the presence of 261 species of birds, none of which may be hunted or shot. Into Sequoia Park 20 dwarf elk and 84 wild turkeys have been introduced, the former from the herd of Miller and Lux.

OTHER NATIONAL PARKS

SULLY HILLS NATIONAL PARK, at Devil's Lake (Fort Totten), North Dakota. Area 960 acres.

PLATT NATIONAL PARK, Sulphur Springs, Oklahoma; on account of many mineral springs. Area 848 acres.

MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK, Southwestern Colorado; on account of cliff dwellings, and wonderful cliff and canyon scenery. Area, 66 square miles.

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NATIONAL MONUMENTS

Under a special act of Congress, the President of the United States has the power forever to set aside from private ownership and occupation any important natural scenery, or curiosity, or wonderland, the preservation of which may fairly be regarded as of National importance, and a duty to the whole people of the United States. This is accomplished by presidential proclamation creating a "national monument."

Under the terms of this act, 28 national monuments have been created, up to 1912, of which 17 are under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior, and 11 are managed by the Department of Agriculture. The full list is as follows:

ALASKA: COLORADO: SOUTH DAKOTA: Sitka Wheeler Jewel Cave Colorado

ARIZONA: Montezuma Castle MONTANA: UTAH: Petrified Forest Lewis & Clark Cavern Natural Bridges Tonto Big Hole Battlefield Mukuntuweap Grand Canyon Rainbow Bridge Tumacacori Navajo NEW MEXICO: El Morro WASHINGTON: CALIFORNIA: Chaco Canyon Mount Olympus Lassen Peak Gila Cliff Dwellings Cinder Cove Gran Quivira Muir Woods WYOMING: Pinnacles OREGON: Devil's Tower Devil's Postpile Oregon Caves Shoshone Cavern

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THE NATIONAL BIRD REFUGES.—Says Dr. T.S. Palmer[M]: "National bird reservations have been established during the last ten years by Executive order for the purpose of affording protection to important breeding colonies of water birds, or to furnish refuges for migratory species on their northern or southern flights, or during winter. With few exceptions these reservations are either small rocky islets or tracts of marsh land of no agricultural value."

[Footnote M: National Reservations for the Protection of Wild Life, by T.S. Palmer, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Circular No. 87, Oct. 5, 1912.]

These reservations are of immense value to bird life, and their creation represents the highest possible wisdom in utilizing otherwise valueless portions of the national domain. Dr. Palmer's alphabetical list of them is as follows, numbered in the order of their creation:

Belle Fourche, S. Dak. 34 Bering Sea, Alaska 44 Bogoslof, Alaska 51 Breton Island, La. 2 Bumping Lake, Wash. 39 Carlsbad, N. Mex. 31 Chase Lake, N. Dak. 20 Clealum, Wash. 38 Clear Lake, Cal. 52 Cold Springs, Oreg. 33 Conconully, Wash. 40 Copalis Rock, Wash. 13 Culebra, P. R. 48 Deer Flat, Idaho 29 East Park, Cal. 28 East Timhalier, La. 14 Farailon, Cal. 49 Flattery Rocks, Wash. 11 Forrester Island, Alaska 53 Green Bay, Wis. 56 Hawaiian Is., Hawaii 26 Hazy Islands, Alaska 54 Huron Islands, Mich. 4 Indian Key, Fla. 7 Island Bay, Fla. 24 Kachess, Wash. 37 Kecchelus, Wash. 36 Key West, Fla. 17 Klamath Lake, Oreg. 18 Loch-Katrine, Wyo. 25 Malheur Lake, Oreg. 19 Matlacha Pass, Fla. 23 Minidoka, Idaho 43 Mosquito Inlet, Fla. 15 Niobrara, Nebr. 55 Palma Sola, Fla. 22 Passage Key, Fla. 6 Pathfinder, Wyo. 41 Pelican Island, Fla. 1 Pine Island, Fla. 21 Pribilof, Alaska 50 Quillayute N'dles, Alaska 12 Rio Grande, N. Mex. 32 St. Lazaria, Alaska 46 Salt River, Ariz. 27 Shell Keys, La. 9 Shoshone, Wyo. 42 Siskiwit, Mich. 5 Strawberry Valley, Utah 35 Stump Lake, N. Dak. 3 Tern Islands, La. 8 Three Arch Rocks, Oreg. 10 Tortugas Keys, Fla. 16 Tuxedni, Alaska 45 Willow Creek, Mont. 30 Yukon Delta, Alaska 47

In addition to the above, the following governmental reservations have been established for the protection of wild life: Yes Bay, Alaska, of 35,200 acres; Afognak Island, Alaska, 800 sq. miles; Midway Islands Naval Reservation, H.T.; Farallon Island, Point Reyes and Ano Nuevo Island, California; Destruction Island, Washington, and Hawaiian Islands Reservation (Laysan).

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STATE GAME PRESERVES IN THE UNITED STATES

PENNSYLVANIA.—The proposition that every state, territory and province in North America and everywhere else, should establish a series of state forest and game preserves, is fairly incontestable. As a business proposition it is to-day no more a debatable question, or open to argument, than is the water supply or sewer system of a city. The only perfect way to conserve a water supply for a great human population is by acquiring title to water sheds, and either protecting the forests upon them, or planting forests in case none exist.

In one important matter the state of Pennsylvania has been wide awake, and in advance of the times. I will cite her system of forest reserves and game preserves as a model plan for other states to follow; and I sincerely hope that by the time the members of the present State Game Commission have passed from earth the people of Pennsylvania will have learned the value of the work they are now doing, and at least give them the appreciation that is deserved by public-spirited citizens who do large things for the People without hope of material reward. At this moment, Commissioner John M. Phillips and Dr. Joseph Kalbfus are putting their heart's blood into the business of preserving and increasing the game and other wild life of Pennsylvania; and the utter lack of appreciation that is now being shown in some quarters is really distressing. I refer particularly to the utterly misguided and mistaken body of hunters and anglers having headquarters at Harrisburg, whose members are grossly mislead into a wrong position by a man who seeks to secure a salaried state position through the hostile organization that he has built up, apparently for his own use. In the belief that those members generally are mislead and not mean-spirited, and that the organization contains a majority of conscientious sportsmen, I predict that ere long the evil genius of Pennsylvania game protection will be ordered to the rear, while the organization as a whole takes its place on the side of the Game Commission, where it belongs.

The game sanctuary scheme that Pennsylvania has developed is so new that as yet only a very small fraction of the people of that state either understand it, or appreciate its far-reaching importance.

To begin with, Pennsylvania has acquired up to date about one million acres of forest lands, scattered through 26 of the 67 counties of the state. These great holdings are to be gradually increased. These wild lands, including many sterile mountain "farms" of no real value for agricultural purposes, have been acquired, first of all, for the purpose of conserving the water supply of the state; and they are called the State Forest Reserves.

Next in order, the State Game Commission has created, in favorable localities in the forest reserves, five great game preserves. The plan is decidedly novel and original, but is very simple withal. In the center of a great tract of forest reserve, a specially desirable tract has been chosen, and its boundaries marked out by the stringing of a single heavy fence wire, surrounding the entire selection. The area within that boundary wire is an absolute sanctuary for all wild creatures save those that prey upon game, and in it no man may hunt anything, nor fire a gun. The boundary wire is by no means a fence, for it keeps nothing out nor in.

Outside of the wire and the sanctuary, men may hunt in the open season, but at the wire every chase must end. If the hunted deer knows enough to flee to the sanctuary when attacked, so much the better for the deer. The tide of wild life ebbs and flows under the wire, and beyond a doubt the deer and grouse will quickly find that within it lies absolute safety. There the breeding and rearing of young may go on undisturbed.

In view of the fact that hunting may go on in the forest reserve areas surrounding these sanctuaries, no intelligent sportsman needs to be told that in a few years all such regions will be teeming with deer, grouse and other game. Where there is one deer to-day there will be twenty ten years hence,—because the law of Pennsylvania forbids the killing of does; and then there will be twenty times the legitimate hunting that there is to-day. For example, the Clinton County Game Preserve of 3,200 acres is surrounded by 128,000 acres of forest reserve, which form legitimate hunting grounds for the game bred in the sanctuary reservoir. In Clearfield County the game sanctuary is surrounded by 47,000 acres of Forest Reserve.

The game preserves created in Pennsylvania up to date are as follows:

In Clinton County 3,200 acres In Clearfield County 3,200 acres In Franklin County 3,200 acres In Perry County 3,200 acres In Westmoreland County 2,500 acres

It is the deliberate intention of the Game Commission to increase these game preserves until there is at least one in each county.

It is the policy of the Commission to clear out of the game sanctuaries all the mammals and birds that destroy wild life, such as foxes, mink, weasels, skunks and destructive hawks and owls. This is accomplished partly by buying old horses, killing them in the preserves and poisoning them thoroughly with strychnine.

Each preserve now contains a nucleus herd of white-tailed deer, some of them imported from northern Michigan. Ruffed grouse are breeding rapidly, and in the Clearfield County Preserve there are said to be at least three thousand. The Game Commission considers it a patriotic duty to preserve the wild turkey, ruffed grouse and quail, rather than have those species replaced at great expense by species imported from the old world. In their work for the protection, preservation and increase of the game of Pennsylvania—partly for the purpose of providing legitimate hunting for the mechanic as well as the millionaire,—the State Game Commissioners are putting a great amount of thought and labor, and whenever their efforts are criticized, their motives impugned or their honesty questioned by men who are not worthy to unlace their shoes, it makes me tired and angry.

NEW YORK:

THE ADIRONDACK STATE PARK.—With wise and commendable forethought, the state of New York has preserved in the Adirondack wilderness, familiarly known as "the North Woods," a magnificent forest domain forever dedicated to campers, outdoorsmen and hunters. At present (1912) it contains 2,031 square miles (1,300,000 acres) of forest-clad hills, valleys and mountains, adorned by countless lakes and streams. By some persons it has been believed that in the State's forests the cutting and sale of large trees would be justifiable business, and agreeable to the public; but it has been demonstrated that this is not the case. The people of the state firmly object to the havoc that is unavoidably wrought by logging operations in beautiful forests. The state does not yet need any of the money that could be derived from such operations. The chief anxiety of the public is that hereafter forest fires shall be prevented, no matter what fire protection may cost! The burning of coal on any railway operated through the Adirondacks should be made a penal offense.

MONTANA:

In 1911 Governor Norris, Senator Cone and the legislature of Montana, at the solicitation of W.R. Felton, L.A. Huffman and others, created the SNOW CREEK GAME PRESERVE, fronting for ten miles on the Missouri River, in the northern side of Dawson County. It is a magnificent tract of bad-lands, very deeply eroded and carved, and highly picturesque. The new state preserve contains 96 square miles, but there is so little grazing ground for antelope and bison it is absolutely imperative that a narrow strip of level grass land should be added along the southern border. This proposed addition is being fiercely resisted, by an organized movement of the sheep owners of Montana (the National Wool Growers' Association), who naturally want the public domain for the free grazing of their tariff-protected sheep-herds. It remains to be seen whether the three sheep men south of the preserve,—the only men who really are affected,—will be able to thwart a movement that has for its object the development of a very good game preserve for the benefit of the ninety millions of the general American public. The range is necessary to contain representatives of the big game of the plains that has been so ruthlessly swept away, and particularly the vanishing prong-horned antelope, once very numerous in that region.

In order to relieve the sheep men of all trouble on account of that preserve, the area should be enlarged to the right dimensions and made a national preserve. A bill for that purpose (Senate 5,286) is now before the Senate, in Senator McLean's Committee, and help is needed to overcome the active hostility of the sheep men, who vow that it never shall be passed! All persons who read this are invited to take this matter up with their Senators and Representatives, without a moment's delay.

WYOMING:

THE TETON STATE PRESERVE.—One of the largest and most important state game preserves thus far established by any of our states is that which was created by Wyoming, in 1904. It is situated along the south of, and fully adjoining, the Yellowstone Park, and its area is 900 square miles (576,000 acres). Its special purpose is to supplement for the elk herds and other big game the protection from killing that previously had been found in the Yellowstone Park alone. The State Preserve is an admirable half-way house for the migrating herds when they leave the National Park to seek their regular winter ranges in and around the Jackson Valley.



In 1909, Wyoming established the Big Horn Game Preserve, in the mountain range of that name. Into it 25 elk were taken from Jackson Hole, and set free, in 1910, at the expense of the Sheridan County Sportsmen's Club.

LOUISIANA:

Great developments for the preservation of wild life have recently been witnessed in Louisiana, all due to the initiative and persistent activities of two men, Edward A. McIlhenny, of Avery Island, La., and Charles Willis Ward, of Michigan, lumberman and horticulturist.

THE LOUISIANA STATE WILD FOWL REFUGE on Vermillion Bay, has an area of 13,000 acres. It was presented to the state by Messrs. Ward and McIlhenny, and formally accepted and protected. It contains a great area of fresh-water ponds and marshy meadows, wherein grows an abundant supply of food for wild fowl. It contains several miles of gravel beach, which during the winter season is visited by thousands of wild geese in quest of their indispensable supply of gravel. The ponds within its borders furnish feeding-grounds for canvasback ducks, redhead, mallard, blackhead and various species of wild geese.

OTHER STATE GAME PRESERVES Acres

IDAHO.—Payette River Game Preserve 230,000 CALIFORNIA.—Pinnacles Game Preserve 2,080 WYOMING.—Big Horn Mountains Game Preserve. MONTANA.—Yellowstone Game Preserve. Pryor Mountain Game Preserve.

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CHAPTER XXXVII

GAME PRESERVES AND GAME LAWS IN CANADA

As now set forth on the map of North America, Canada is a vast country. We must no longer think of Ontario and Quebec as "Canada West" and "Canada East," because the new assistant-nation owns and rules everything from Labrador to British Columbia, and all the northern mainland save Alaska.

Although the fauna of Canada is strictly boreal, it is sufficiently dispersed and diversified to demand wise legislation, and plenty of it. For a nation with an outfit of provinces so new, Canada already is well advanced in the matter of game laws and game preserves, and in some respects she has set the pace for her southern neighbors. For example, in New Brunswick we see the lordly moose successfully hunted for sport, not only without being exterminated but actually on a basis that permits it to increase in number. In Nova Scotia we see a law in force which successfully prohibits the waste of moose meat, a loss that characterizes moose hunting everywhere else throughout the range of that animal. All over southern Canada the use of automatic shotguns in hunting is strictly prohibited.

On the other hand, the laws of the Canadians are weak in not preventing the sale of all wild game and the killing of antelope. In the matter of game-selling, there are far too many open doors, and a sweeping reform is very necessary.

Speaking generally, and with application from Labrador to British Columbia, the American process of game extermination according to law is vigorously and successfully being pursued by the people of Canada. The open seasons are too long, and the bag limits are too generous to the gunners. As it is elsewhere, the bag-limit laws on birds are a farce, because it is impossible to enforce them, save on every tenth man. For example, in his admirable "Final Report of the Ontario Game and Fisheries Commission" (1912), Commissioner Kelly Evans says:

"The prairie chicken, which formerly was comparatively plentiful throughout the greater portion of the Rainy River District, has now become practically extinct in that region. Various causes have been assigned for this, but it would seem, as usual, to have been mainly the fault of indiscriminate and excessive slaughter." (Page 226.)

Like the United States, the various portions of Canada have their various local troubles in wild-life protection. I think the greatest practical difficulties, and the most real opposition to adequate measures, is found in the Provinces of Quebec and Ontario. Is it because the French-descended population is impatient of real restraint, and objects to measures that are drastic, even though they are necessary? In Ontario, Commissioner Evans has been splendidly supported by the Government, and by all the real sportsmen of that province; but the gunners and guerrillas of destruction have successfully postponed several of the reforms that he has advocated, and which should have been carried into effect.

So far as public moral support for game protection is concerned I think that the prairie and mountain provinces have the best of it. In Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Athabasca and British Columbia, the spirit of the people is mainly correct, and the chief thing that seems to be lacking is a Kelly Evans in each of those provinces to urge public sentiment into strong action. For example, why should Alberta still permit the hunting and killing of prong-horned antelope, when it is so well known that that species is vanishing like a mist before the morning sun? I think it is because no one seems to have risen up as G.O. Shields did in the United States, to make a big fuss about it, and demand a reform. At any rate, all the provinces of Canada that still possess antelope should immediately pass laws giving that species absolute close seasons for ten years. Why neglect it longer, when such neglect is now so very wrong? Whether this is done or not, I sincerely hope that hereafter no true American sportsman, will be guilty of killing one of the vanishing antelope of Canada, even though "the law doth give it."

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THE GAME PRESERVES OF CANADA

In the creation of National parks and game preserves, some of the provinces of the Canadian nation have displayed a degree of foresight and enterprise that merits sincere admiration. While in different provinces the exact status of these establishments may vary somewhat, the main purpose of each is the same,—the preservation of the forests and the wild life. In all of them a regulated amount of fishing is permitted, and in some the taking of fur-bearing animals is permitted; but I believe in all the birds and furless mammals are strictly protected. In some parks the carrying of firearms still is permitted, but that privilege is quite out of harmony with the spirit and purposes of a game preserve, and should be abolished. If it is necessary to carry firearms through a preserve, as often happens in the Yellowstone Park, it can be done under seals that are affixed by duly appointed officers and thus will temptation be kept out of the way of sinners.

Up to this date I never have seen a publication which set forth in one place even so much as an annotated list of the game preserves of the various provinces of Canada, and at present exact information regarding them is rather difficult to obtain. It seems that an adequate governmental publication on this subject is now due, and overdue.

ONTARIO.—"At the present time," says Commissioner Evans in his "Final Report," "the Algonquin National Park is the only actual game preserve in the Province, being in fact a game reserve and not a forest reserve; but in the past at least a measure of protection would seem to have been afforded the game in most of the [forest] reserves, owing to the fact that the carrying of firearms therein has been discouraged, and it would appear to require but the passing of an Order-in-Council to render the carrying of firearms in all reserves illegal. It is sincerely to be hoped that not only will such action be taken without delay, but also that all the forest reserves will be declared game reserves in the strictest sense."

To this sentiment all friends of wild life will join a fervent wish for its realization. As conditions are to-day, it is impossible to have too many game reserves! There is everything to gain and nothing to lose by making every national forest and forest reserve on the whole continent of North America a game preserve in the strictest sense, and we hope to live to see that end accomplished, both in the United States and Canada.

The Algonquin National Park is situated in the Parry Sound region, just above the Muskoka Lakes, and it has an area of 1,930 square miles. It is well stocked with moose, caribou, white-tailed deer, black bear and beaver. During the period of protection the beaver have increased so greatly that about 1,000 were trapped last year for the market, by officers of the government; and about 25 were sold to zoological gardens and parks, at $25 each.

The Quetico Forest Reserve, area 1,560 square miles, was created as the Canadian complement of the Minnesota National Forest and Game Preserve. The two join on the international boundary, and each helps to protect the other. Both are well stocked with moose, and will render valuable service in the preservation of a mid-continental contingent of that species.

ALBERTA.—In the making of game preserves the province of Alberta has been splendidly progressive and liberal. The total result is fairly beyond the reach of ordinary words of praise. It sets a pace that should result in wide-spread benefits to the wild life of North America. In it there is nothing faint-hearted. It should make some of our States think seriously regarding their own shortcomings in this particular field of endeavor.

ALBERTA'S NATIONAL PARKS

Acres Sq. miles Rocky Mountains Park 2,764,800 4,320 Yoho Park 1,799,680 2,812 Glacier Park 1,474,560 2,304 Buffalo Park 384,000 600 Elk Island Park 40,000 62 Jasper Park 3,488,000 5,450 Waterton Lakes Park 34,560 54 ————- ——— 9,985,600 15,602

The Rocky Mountains Park is near Banff. The Yoho and Glacier Parks are near Field. The Buffalo Park is near Wainwright, on the plains, and it was created and fenced especially as a home for the herd of American bison that was purchased in Montana in 1909. It now contains 1,052 head of bison, 20 moose, 35 deer, 7 elk, and 6 antelope.

The Elk Island Park is near Fort Saskatchewan and Lamont, and at this date (1912) it contains 53 bison, 28 elk, 30 deer and 5 moose. The bison subsist entirely by grazing, and upon hay cut within the Park.

Jasper Park, established in 1908, is on the Athabasca River and the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, near Strathcona. Sixty miles of the railway line lie within the Park. Scenically, Jasper Park is a rival of Rocky Mountains Park, and undoubtedly possesses great attractions for travellers who appreciate the beauties and grandeur of Nature as expressed in mountains, valleys, lakes and streams.

Waterton Lakes Park is situated in the extreme southwestern corner of Alberta, in the Rocky Mountains surrounding the Waterton Lakes. At present it is nine miles long from north to south and six miles wide, with its southern end resting on the international boundary, and adjoining our Glacier Park. It is the home of a few bands of mountain sheep that carry very large horns. Through the initiative of Frederick K. Vreeland, the Camp-Fire Club of America two years ago represented to the Government of Alberta the great desirability of enlarging this preserve, toward the north and west, the better to protect the mountain sheep and other big game of that region. The suggestion was received in a friendly spirit, and there is good reason to hope that at an early date the enlargement will be made.

BRITISH COLUMBIA.—This province has made an excellent beginning in the creation of game preserves. The first agitation on that subject was begun in 1906, by two sportsmen whose names in connection with it have long since been forgotten. On November 15, 1908, the Legislative Council of British Columbia issued a proclamation that created a very fine game preserve in the East Kootenai District, between the Elk and Bull Rivers and northwestward thereof to the White River country. By an unfortunate oversight, the new preserve never has been officially named, but we may designate it here as

The Elk River Game Preserve.—This preserve has a total area of about 450 square miles, and includes a fine tract of mountains, valleys, lakes and streams. It contained in 1908 about 1,000 mountain goats, 200 sheep, a few elk and deer, and about 50 grizzly bears. All these have notably increased during the period of absolute protection that they have enjoyed. It is probable that this preserve contains more white mountain goats than any other preserve that thus far has been made. It was in this region that Mr. John M. Phillips and Prof. Henry Fairfield Osborne made the first mountain goat photographs ever made at close range. It is to be hoped that the protection of this preserve, both as to its wild life and its timber, will be made perpetual.

Frazer River Preserve.—Next after the above there was created in British Columbia a game preserve covering a large portion of the mountain territory that rises between the North and South Forks of the Fraser River. It is about 75 miles long by 30 miles wide and contains about 2,250 square miles. Concerning its character and wild-life population we have no details.

Yalakom Game Preserve.—On the north side of Bridge River (a western tributary of the Fraser), about twenty miles above Lilloet. there has been established a game preserve having an area of about 215 square miles.

MANITOBA.—In the making of game preserves, Manitoba has made an excellent beginning. It is good to see from Duck Mountain in the north to Turtle Mountain in the south a chain of four liberal preserves, each one protected in unmistakable terms as follows: "Carrying firearms, hunting or trapping strictly prohibited within this area."

The lake regions of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta form what is probably the most important wild-fowl breeding-ground in North America. To a great extent it rests with those provinces to say whether the central United States shall have any ducks and geese, or not! It is high time that an international treaty should be made between the United States, Canada and Mexico for the federal protection of all migratory birds.

These preserves are of course intended to conserve wild-fowl, shore-birds, grouse and all other birds, as well as big game. Thanks to the cooperation of Mr. J.M. Macoun, of the Canadian Geological Survey, I am able to offer the following:

LIST OF MANITOBA'S GAME PRESERVES

DUCK MOUNTAIN PRESERVE 324 sq. miles, 207,360 acres. RIDING MOUNTAIN PRESERVE 360 " " 230,000 " SPRUCE WOODS PRESERVE 64 " " 40,960 " TURTLE MOUNTAIN PRESERVE 100 " " 64,000 "

848 " " 542,320 "

Manitoba is to be congratulated on this record.

QUEBEC.—This province has created two huge game preserves, well worthy of the fauna that they are intended to conserve when all hunting in them is prohibited!

The Laurentides National Park is second in area of all the national parks of Canada, being surpassed only by the Rocky Mountains Park of British Columbia. Its area is 3565 square miles, or 2,281,600 acres. It occupies the entire central portion of the great area surrounded by Lake St. John, the Saguenay River, the wide portion of the St. Lawrence, and the St. Maurice River on the west. Its southern boundary is in several places only 16 miles from the St. Lawrence, while its most northern angle is within 13 miles of Lake St. John. Its greatest width from east to west is 71 miles, and its greatest length from north to south is 79 miles. It covers a huge watershed in which over a dozen large rivers and many small ones have their sources. It is indeed a forest primeval. The rivers are well stocked with fish, and the big game includes moose, woodland caribou, black bear, lynx, beaver, marten, fisher, mink, fox, and—sad to say—the gray wolf. The caribou live in rather small bands, from 10 up to 100.

Unfortunately, hunting under license is permitted in the Laurentian National Park, and therefore it is by no means a real game preserve! It is a near-preserve.

The Gaspesian Forest, Fish and Game Preserve, created in 1906, is in "the Gaspe country," and it has an area of 2500 square miles situated in the eastern Quebec counties of Gaspe and Matane.

The Connaught National Park, to be named in honor of H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught, has been proposed by Mr. J.M. Macoun, of the Canadian Geological Survey. The general location chosen is the mountains and forested territory north of Ottawa and the Ottawa River, within easy access from the Canadian capitol. On the map the location recommended lies between the Gatineau River on the east and Wolf Lake on the west. The proposal is meeting with much popular favor, and it is extremely probable that it will be carried into effect at an early date.

LABRADOR.—During the past two years Lieut.-Col. William Wood has strongly advocated the making of game preserves in Labrador, that will not only tend to preserve the scanty fauna of that region from extinction but will also aid in bringing it back. While Col. Wood's very energetic and praiseworthy campaign has not yet been crowned with success, undoubtedly it will be successful in the near future, because ultimately such causes always win their objects, provided they are prosecuted with the firm and unflagging persistence which has characterized this particular campaign. We congratulate Col. Wood on the success that he will achieve in the near future!

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GAME LAWS OF THE CANADIAN PROVINCES

ALBERTA.—The worst feature of the Alberta laws is the annual open season on antelope, two of which may be killed under each license. This is entirely wrong, and a perpetual close season should at once be enacted. Duck shooting in August is wrong, and the season should not open until September. It is not right that duck-killing should be made so easy and so fearfully prolonged that extermination is certain. All killing of cranes and shore birds should be absolutely stopped, for five years. No wheat-producing province can afford the expense to the wheat crops of the slaughter of shore birds, thirty species of which are great crop-protectors.

The bag limit of two sheep is too high, by 50 per cent. It should immediately be cut down to one sheep, before sheep hunting in Alberta becomes a lost art. Sheep hunting should not be encouraged—quite the reverse! There are already too many sheep-crazy sportsmen. The bag limit on grouse and ptarmigan of 20 per day or 200 in a season is simply legalized slaughter, no more and no less, and if it is continued, a grouseless province will be the quick result. The birds are not sufficiently numerous to withstand the guns on that basis. Alberta should be wiser than the states below the international boundary that are annihilating their remnants of birds as fast as they can be found.

BRITISH COLUMBIA.—We note with much satisfaction that the Provincial Game Warden, Mr. A. Bryan Williams, has been allowed $37,000 for the pay of game wardens, and $28,000 for the destruction of wolves, coyotes, pumas and other game-destroying animals. During the past two years the following game-destroyers were killed, and bounties were paid upon them:

1909-10 1910-11

Wolves 655 518 Coyotes 1,464 3,653 Cougars 382 277 Horned Owls 854 2,285 Golden Eagles 29 73 3,374 6,806

"Now," says Warden Williams in his excellent annual report for 1911, "in these two years a total of 2,896 wolves and cougars and 5,141 coyotes were destroyed, as well as a number of others poisoned and not recovered for the bounty. Allowing fifty head for each wolf and cougar and ten for each coyote, by their bounties alone 196,210 head of game and domestic animals were saved. Is it any wonder that deer are increasing almost everywhere?"

The great horned owl has been and still is a great scourge to the upland game birds, partly because when game is abundant "they become fastidious, and eat only the brains of their prey." The destruction of 3,139 of them on the Lower Mainland during the last two years has made these owls sing very small, and says the warden, "Is it any wonder that grouse are again increasing?"

I have discussed with the Provincial Game Warden the advisability of putting a limit of one on the grizzly bear, but Mr. Williams advances good reasons for the opinion that it would be impracticable to do so at present. I am quite sure, however, that the time has already arrived when a limit of one is necessary. During the present year three of my friends who went hunting in British Columbia, each killed 3 grizzly bears! Hereafter I will "locate" no more bear hunters in that country until the bag limit is reduced to one grizzly per year. Since 1905 the trapping of bears south of the main line of the Canadian Pacific Railway has been stopped; and an excellent move too. A Rocky Mountain without a grizzly bear is like a tissue-paper rose.

The bag limit on the big game of British Columbia is at least twice too liberal,—five deer, two elk, two moose (one in Kootenay County), three caribou and three goats. There is no necessity for such wasteful liberality. Few sportsmen go to British Columbia for the sake of a large lot of animals. I know many men who have been there to hunt, and the great majority cared more for the scenery and the wild romance of camping out in ground mountains than for blood and trophies.

MANITOBA.—What are we to think of a "bag limit" of fifty ducks per day in October and November? A "limit" indeed! Evidently, Manitoba is tired of having ducks, ruffed grouse, pinnated and other grouse pestering her farmers and laborers. While assuming to fix bag limits that will be of some benefit to those species, the limit is distinctly off, and nothing short of a quick and drastic reform will save a remnant that will remain visible to the naked eye.

NEW BRUNSWICK.—This is the banner province in the protection of moose, caribou and deer, even while permitting them to be shot for sport. Of course, only males are killed, and I am assured by competent judges that thus far the killing of the finest and largest male moose has had no bad effect upon the stature or antlers of the species as a whole.

NOVA SCOTIA.—If there is anything wrong with the game laws of Nova Scotia, it lies in the wide-open sale of moose meat and all kinds of feathered game during the open season. If that province were more heavily populated, it would mean a great destruction of game. Even with conditions as they are, the sale permitted is entirely wrong, and against the best interests of 97 per cent of the people.

As previously mentioned, the law against the waste of moose meat is both novel and admirable. The saving of any considerable portion of the flesh of a full-grown bull moose, along with its head, is a large order; but it is right. The degree of accountability to which guides are held for the doings of the men whom they pilot into the woods is entirely commendable, and worthy of imitation. If a sportsman or gunner does the wrong thing, the guide loses his license.

SASKATCHEWAN.—This is another of the too-liberal provinces having no real surplus of big game with which to sustain for any length of time an excess of generosity. I am told that in this province there is now a great deal of open country around each wild animal. And yet, it cheerfully offers two moose, two elk, two caribou and two antelope per season to each licensed gunner or sportsman. The limit is too generous by half. Why throw away an extra $250 worth of game with each license? That is precisely what the people of Saskatchewan are doing to-day.

And that antelope-killing! It should be stopped at once, and for ten years.

YUKON.—This province permits the sale of all the finest and best wild game within its borders,—moose, elk, caribou, bison, musk-ox, sheep and goats! The flesh of all these may be sold during the open season, and for sixty days thereafter. Of the species named above, the barren ground caribou is the only one regarding which we need not worry; because that species still exists in millions. The Osborn caribou (Rangifer osborni), can be exterminated in our own times, because it is nowhere really numerous, and it inhabits exposed situations.

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CHAPTER XXXVIII

PRIVATE GAME PRESERVES

Primarily, in the early days of the Man-on-Horseback, the self-elected and predatory lords of creation evolved the private game preserve as a scheme for preventing other fellows from shooting, and for keeping the game sacred to slaughter by themselves. The idea of conserving the game was a fourth-rate consideration, the first being the estoppel of the other man. The old-world owner of a game preserve delights in the annual killing of the surplus game, and we have even heard it whispered that in the Dark Ages there were kings who enjoyed the wholesale slaughter of deer, wild boar, pheasants and grouse. If we may accept as true the history of sport in Europe, there have been men who have loved slaughter with a genuine blood-lust that is quite foreign to the real nature-loving sportsman.

In America, the impulse is different. Here, there is raging a genuine fever for private game preserves. Some of those already existing are of fine proportions, and cost fortunes to create. Every true sportsman who is rich enough to own a private game preserve, sooner or later acquires one. You will find them scattered throughout the temperate zone of North America from the Bay of Fundy to San Diego. I have had invitations to visit preserves in an unbroken chain from the farthest corner of Quebec to the Pacific Coast, and from Grand Island, Lake Superior to the Gulf of Mexico. It was not necessarily to hunt, and kill something, but to see the game, and the beauties of nature.

The wealthy American and Canadian joyously buys a tract of wilderness, fences it, stocks it with game both great and small, and provides game keepers for all the year round. At first he has an idea that he will "hunt" therein, and that his guests will hunt also, and actually kill game. In a mild way, this fiction sometimes is maintained for years. The owner may each year shoot two or three head of his surplus big game, and his tenderfoot guests who don't know what real hunting is may also kill something, each year. But in most of the American preserves with which I am well acquainted, the gentlemanly "sport" of "hunting big game" is almost a joke. The trouble is, usually, the owner becomes so attached to his big game, and admires it so sincerely, he has not the heart to kill it himself; and he finds no joy whatever in seeing it shot down by others!

In this country the slaughter of game for the market is not considered a gentlemanly pastime, even though there is a surplus of preserve-bred game that must be reduced. To the average American, the slaughter of half-tame elk, deer and birds that have been bred in a preserve does not appeal in the least. He knows that in the protection of a preserve, the wild creatures lose much of their fear of man, and become easy marks; and shall a real sportsman go out with a gun and a bushel of cartridges, on a pony, and without warning betray the confidence of the wild in terms of fire and blood? Others may do it if they like; but as a rule that is not what an American calls "sport." One wide-awake and well-armed grizzly bear or mountain sheep outwitted on a mountain-side is worth more as a sporting proposition than a quarter of a mile of deer carcasses laid out side by side on a nice park lawn to be photographed as "one day's kill."

In America, the shooting of driven game is something of which we know little save by hearsay. In Europe, it is practiced on everything from Scotch grouse to Italian ibex. The German Crown Prince, in his fascinating little volume "From My Hunting Day-Book," very neatly fixes the value of such shooting, as a real sportsman's proposition, in the following sentence:

"The shooting of driven game is merely a question of marksmanship, and is after all more in the nature of a shooting exercise than sport."

I have seen some shooting in preserves that was too tame to be called sport; but on the other hand I can testify that in grouse shooting as it is done behind the dogs on Mr. Carnegie's moor at Skibo, it is sport in which the hunter earns every grouse that falls to his gun. At the same time, also, I believe that the shooting of madly running ibex, as it is done by the King of Italy in his three mountain preserves, is sufficiently difficult to put the best big-game hunter to the test. There are times when shooting driven game calls for far more dexterity with the rifle than is ordinarily demanded in the still-hunt.

In America, as in England and on the Continent of Europe, private game preserves are so numerous it is impossible to mention more than a very few of them, unless one devotes a volume to the subject. Probably there are more than five hundred, and no list of them is "up to date" for more than one day, because the number is constantly increasing. I make no pretense even of possessing a list of those in America, and I mention only a few of those with which I am best acquainted, by way of illustration.

One of the earliest and the most celebrated deer parks of the United States was that of Hon. John Dean Caton, of two hundred acres, located near Ottawa, Ill., established about 1859. It was the experiments and observations made in that park that yielded Judge Caton's justly famous book on "The Antelope and Deer of America."

The first game preserve established by an incorporated club was "Blooming Grove Park," of one thousand acres, in Pennsylvania, where great success has been attained in the breeding and rearing of white-tailed deer.

In the eastern United States the most widely-known game preserve is Blue Mountain Forest Park, near Newport, New Hampshire. It was founded in 1885, by the late Austin Corbin, and has been loyally and diligently maintained by Austin Corbin, Jr., George S. Edgell and the other members of the Corbin family. Ownership is vested in the Blue Mountain Forest Association. The area of the preserve is 27,000 acres, and besides embracing much fine forest on Croydon Mountain, it also contains many converted farms whose meadow lands afford good grazing.

This preserve contains a large herd of bison (86 head), elk, white-tailed deer, wild boar and much smaller game. The annual surplus of bison and other large game is regularly sold and distributed throughout the world for the stocking of other parks and zoological gardens. Each year a few surplus deer are quietly killed for the Boston market, but a far greater number are sold alive, at from $25 to $30 each in carload lots.

In the Adirondacks of northern New York, there are a great many private game preserves. Dr. T.S. Palmer, in his pamphlet on "Private Game Preserves" (Department of Agriculture) places the number at 60, and their total area at 791,208 acres. Some of them have caused much irritation among some of the hunting, fishing and trapping residents of the Adirondack region. They seem to resent the idea of the exclusive ownership of lands that are good hunting-grounds. This view of property rights has caused much trouble and some bloodshed, two persons having been killed for presuming to assert exclusive rights in large tracts of wilderness property.

"In the upland preserve under private ownership." says Dr. Palmer, "may be found one of the most important factors in the maintenance of the future supply of game and game birds. Nearly all such preserves are maintained for the propagation of deer, quail, grouse, or pheasants. They vary widely in area, character, and purpose, and embrace some of the largest game refuges in the country. Some of the preserves in North Carolina cover from 15,000 to 30,000 acres; several in South Carolina exceed 60,000 acres in extent." The Megantic Club's northern preserve, on the boundary between Quebec and Maine, embraces nearly 200 square miles, or upward of 125,000 acres.

Comparatively few of the larger preserves are enclosed, and on such grounds, hunting becomes sport quite as genuine as it is in regions open to free hunting. In some instances part of the tract is fenced, while large unenclosed areas are protected by being posted. The character of their tenure varies also. Some are owned in fee simple; others, particularly the larger ones, are leased, or else comprise merely the shooting rights on the land. In both size and tenure, the upland preserves of the United States are comparable with the grouse moors and large deer forests of Scotland.

Of the game preserves in the South, I know one that is quite ideal. It is St. Vincent Island, near Apalachicola, Florida, in the northern edge of the Gulf of Mexico. It was purchased in 1909 by Dr. Ray V. Pierce, and his guests kill perhaps one hundred ducks each year out of the thousands that flock to the ten big ponds that occupy the eastern third of the island. Into those ponds much good duck food has been introduced,—Potamogeton pectinatus and perfoliatus. The area of the island is twenty square miles. Besides being a great winter resort for ducks, its sandy, pine-covered ridges and jungles of palms to and live oak afford fine haunts and feeding grounds for deer. Those jungles contain two species of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus louisiana and osceola), and Dr. Pierce has introduced the Indian sambar deer and Japanese sika deer (Cervus sika), both of which are doing well. We are watching the progress of those big sambar deer with very keen interest, and it is to be recorded that already that species has crossed with the Louisiana white-tailed deer.



During the autumn of 1912, public attention in the United States was for a time focused on the purchase of Marsh Island, Louisiana, by Mrs. Russell Sage, and its permanent dedication to the cause of wild-life protection. This delightful event has brought into notice the Louisiana State Game Preserve of 13,000 acres near Marsh Island, and its hinterland (and water) of 11,000 acres adjoining, which constitutes the Ward-McIlhenny Wild Fowl Preserve. These three great preserves taken together as they lie form a wild-fowl sanctuary of great size, and of great value to the whole Mississippi Valley. Now that all duck-shooting therein has been stopped, it is safe to predict that they shortly will be inhabited by a wild-fowl population that will really stagger the imagination.

DUCK-SHOOTING "PRESERVES."—A ducking "preserve" is a large tract of land and water owned by a few individuals, or a club, for the purpose of preserving exclusively for themselves and their friends the best possible opportunities for killing large numbers of ducks and geese without interference. In no sense whatever are they intended to preserve or increase the supply of wild fowl. The real object of their existence is duck and goose slaughter. For example, the worst goose-slaughter story on record comes to us from the grounds of the Glenn County Club in California, whereon, as stated elsewhere, two men armed with automatic shotguns killed 218 geese in one hour, and bagged a total of 452 in one day.

I shall not attempt to give any list of the so-called ducking "preserves." The word "preserve," when applied to them, is a misnomer. Thirteen states have these incorporated slaughtering-grounds for ducks and geese, the greatest number being in California, Illinois, North Carolina and Virginia. California has carried the ducking-club idea to the limit where it is claimed that it constitutes an abuse. Dr. Palmer says that one or two of the club preserves on the western side of the San Joaquin Valley contain upward of 40 square miles, or 25,000 acres each! With considerable asperity it is now publicly charged (in the columns of The Examiner of San Francisco) that for the unattached sportsmen there is no longer any duck-shooting to be had in California, because all the good ducking-grounds are owned and exclusively controlled by clubs. In many states the private game preserves are a source of great irritation, and many have been attacked in courts of law.[N]

[Footnote N: "Private Game Preserves and their Future in the United States," by T.S. Palmer, United States Department of Agriculture, 1910.]

But I am not sorrowing over the woes of the unattached duck-hunter, or in the least inclined to champion his cause against the ducking-club member. As slaughterers and exterminators of wild-fowl, rarely exercising mercy under ridiculous bag-limits, they have both been too heedless of the future, and one is just as bad for the game as the other. If either of them favored the game, I would be on his side; but I see no difference between them. They both kill right up to the bag-limit, as often as they can; and that is what is sweeping away all our feathered game.

Curiously enough, the angry unattached duck-hunters of California are to-day proposing to have revenge on the duck-clubbers by removing all restrictions on the sale of game! This is on the theory that the duckless sportsmen of the State of California would like to buy dead ducks and geese for their tables! It is a novel and original theory, but the sane people of California never will enact it into law. It would be a step just twenty years backward!

THE PUBLIC vs. THE PRIVATE GAME PRESERVE.—Both the executive and the judiciary branches of our state governments will in the future be called upon with increasing frequency to sit in judgment on this case. Conditions about us are rapidly changing. The precepts of yesterday may be out of date and worthless tomorrow. By way of introspection, let us see what principles of equity toward Man and Nature we would lay down as the basis of our action if we were called to the bench. Named in logical sequence they would be about as follows:

1. Any private game "preserve" that is maintained chiefly as a slaughter-ground for wild game, either birds or mammals, may become detrimental to the interests of the people at large.



2. It is not necessarily the duty of any state to provide for the maintenance of private death-traps for the wholesale slaughter of migratory game.

3. An oppressive monopoly in the slaughter of migratory game is detrimental to the interests of the public at large, the same as any other monopoly.

4. Every de facto game preserve, maintained for the preservation of wild life rather than for its slaughter, is an institution beneficial to the public at large, and therefore entitled to legal rights and privileges above and beyond all which may rightly be accorded to the so-called "preserves" that are maintained as killing-grounds.

5. The law may justly discriminate between the actual game preserve and the mere killing-ground.

6. Whenever a killing-ground becomes a public burden, it may be abated, the same as any other public infliction.

In private game preserves the time has arrived when lawmakers and judges must begin to apply the blood-test, and separate the true from the false. And at every step, the welfare of the wild life involved must be given full consideration. No men, nor body of men, should be permitted to practice methods that spell extermination.

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CHAPTER XXXIX

BRITISH GAME PRESERVES IN AFRICA AND AUSTRALIA

This brief chapter is offered as an object-lesson to the world at large.

In the early days of America, the founders of our states and territories gave little heed, or none at all, to the preservation of wild life. Even if they thought of that duty, undoubtedly they felt that the game would always last, and that they had no time for such sentimental side issues as the making of game preserves. They were coping with troubles and perplexities of many kinds, and it is not to be wondered at that up to forty years ago, real game protection in America went chiefly by default.

In South Africa, precisely the same conditions have prevailed until recent times. The early colonists were kept so busy shooting lions and making farms that not one game preserve was made. If any men can be excused from the work and worry of preserving game, and making preserves, it is those who spend their lives pioneering and state-building in countries like Africa. Men who continually have to contend with disease, bad food, rains, insect pests, dangerous wild beasts and native cussedness may well claim that they have troubles enough, without going far into campaigns to preserve wild animals in countries where animals are plentiful and cheap. It is for this reason that the people of Alaska can not be relied upon to preserve the Alaskan game. They are busy with other things that are of more importance to them.

In May, 1900, representatives of the great powers owning territory in Africa held a conference in the interests of the wild-animal life of that continent. As a result a Convention was signed by which those powers bound themselves "to make provision for the prevention of further undue destruction of wild game." The principles laid down for universal observance were as follows:

1. Sparing of females and immature animals. 2. The establishment of close seasons and game sanctuaries. 3. Absolute protection of rare species. 4. Restrictions on export for trading purposes of skins, horns, tusks, etc. 5. Prohibition of the use of pits, snares and game traps.

The brave and hardy men who are making for the British people a grand empire in Africa probably are greater men than far-distant people realize. To them, the white man's burden of game preservation is accepted as all in the day's work. A mere handful of British civil officers, strongly aided by the Society for the Preservation of the Fauna of the British Empire, have carved out and set aside a great chain of game preserves reaching all the way from Swaziland and the Transvaal to Khartoum. Taken either collectively or separately, it represents grand work, characteristic of the greatest colonizers on earth. Those preserves are worthy stones in the foundation of what one day will be a great British empire in Africa. The names of the men who proposed them and wrought them out should, in some way, be imperishably connected with them as their founders, as the least reward that Posterity can bestow.

In Major J. Stevenson-Hamilton's fine work, "Animal Life in Africa,"[O] the author has been at much pains to publish an excellent series of maps showing the locations of the various British game preserves in Africa, and the map published herewith has been based chiefly on that work. It is indeed fortunate for the wild life of Africa that it has today so powerful a champion and exponent as this author, the warden of the Transvaal Game Preserves.

[Footnote O: Published by Heinemann, London, 1912.]

Events move so rapidly that up to this date no one, so far as I am aware, has paused long enough to make and publish an annotated list of the African game preserves. Herein I have attempted to begin that task myself, and I regret that at this distance it is impossible for me to set down under the several titles the names of the men who made these preserves possible, and actually founded them.

To thoughtful Americans I particularly commend this list as a showing of the work of men who have not waited until the game had been practically exterminated before creating sanctuaries in which to preserve it. In view of these results, how trivial and small of soul seems the mercenary efforts of the organized wool-growers of Montana to thwart our plan to secure a paltry fifteen square miles of grass lands for the rugged and arid Snow Creek Antelope Preserve that is intended to help save a valuable species from quick extermination.

At this point I must quote the views of a high authority on the status of wild life and game preserves in Africa. The following is from Major Stevenson-Hamilton's book.

"It is a remarkable phenomenon in human affairs how seldom the experience of others seems to turn the scale of action. There are, I take it, very few farmers, in the Cape Colony, the Orange Free State, or the Transvaal, who would not be glad to see an adequate supply of game upon their land. Indeed, the writer is constantly dealing with applications as to the possibility of reintroducing various species from the game reserves to private farms, and only the question of expense and the difficulty of transport have, up to the present, prevented this being done on a considerable scale. When, therefore, the relatively small populations of such protectorates as are still well stocked with game are heard airily discussing the advisability of getting rid of it as quickly as possible, one realizes how often vain are the teachings of history, and how well-nigh hopeless it is to quote the result of similar action elsewhere. It remains only to trust that things may be seen in truer perspective ere it is too late, and that those in whose temporary charge it is may not cast recklessly away one of nature's most splendid assets, one, moreover, which once lightly discarded, can never by any possibility, be regained.



"It is idle to say that the advance of civilization must necessarily mean the total disappearance of all wild animals. This is one of those glib fallacies which flows only too readily from unthinking lips. Civilization in its full sense—not the advent of a few scattered pioneers—of course, implies their restriction, especially as regards purely grass-feeding species, within certain definite bounds, both as regards numbers and sanctuaries. But this is a very different thing from wholesale destruction, that a few more or less deserving individuals may receive some small pecuniary benefit, or gratify their taste for slaughter to the detriment of everyone else who may come after. The fauna of an empire is the property of that empire as a whole, and not of the small portion of it where the animals may happen to exist; and while full justice and encouragement must be given to the farmer and pioneer, neither should be permitted to entirely demolish for his own advantage resources which, strictly speaking, are not his own."—("Animal Life in Africa." p. 24.)

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AFRICAN GAME PRESERVES

BRITISH EAST AFRICA:

1.[P] The Athi Plains Preserve.—This is situated between the Uganda Railway and the boundary of German East Africa. Its northern boundary is one mile north of the railway track. It is about 215 miles long east and west by 105 miles from north to south, and its area is about 13,000 square miles. It is truly a great preserve, and worthy of the plains fauna that it is specially intended to perpetuate.

[Footnote P: These numbers refer to corresponding numbers on the map of Africa.]

2. The Jubaland Preserve.—This preserve lies northwest of Mount Kenia. Its southwestern corner is near Lake Baringo, the Laikipia Escarpment is its western boundary up to Mt. Nyiro, and from that point its northern boundary runs 225 miles to Marsabit Lake. From that point the boundary runs south-by-west to the Guaso Nyiro River, which forms the eastern half of the southern boundary. Its total area appears to be about 13,000 square miles.

In addition to the two great preserves described above the government of British East Africa has established on the Uasin Gishu Plateau a centrally located sanctuary for elands, roan antelopes and hippopotamii. There is also a small special rhinoceros preserve about fifty miles southeastward of Nairobi, around Kiu station, on the railway.

EGYPTIAN SUDAN:

3. A great nameless sanctuary for wild life exists on the eastern bank of the Nile, comprising the whole territory between the main stream, the Blue Nile and Abyssinia. Its length (north and south) is 215 miles, and its width is about 125 miles; which means a total area of about 26,875 square miles. Natives and others living within this sanctuary may hunt therein—if they can procure licenses.

SOMALILAND:

4. Hargeis Reserve, about 1,800 square miles.

5. Mirso Reserve, about 300 square miles.

UGANDA:

6. Budonga Forest Reserve.—This small reserve embraces the whole eastern shore and hinterland of Lake Albert Nyanza, and is shaped like a new moon.

7. Toro Reserve.—This small reserve lies between Lakes Albert Nyanza and Albert Edward Nyanza, touching both.

NYASALAND, OR THE BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA PROTECTORATE.—A small territory, but remarkably well stocked with game.

8. Elephant Marsh Preserve.—A small area in the extreme southern end of the Protectorate, on both sides of the Shire River, chiefly for buffalo.

9. Angoniland Reserve.—This was created especially to preserve about one thousand elephants. It is forty miles west of the southwestern arm of Lake Nyasa.

TRANSVAAL:

10. Sabi-Singwitza-Pongola Preserve.—This great preserve occupies the whole region between the Drakenberg Mountains and the Lebombo Hills. Its total area is about 10,500 square miles. It lies in a compact block about 210 miles long by 50 miles wide, along the Portuguese border.

11. Rustenburg Reserve.—This is situated at the head of the Limpopo River, and covers about 3,500 square miles.

SWAZILAND:

12. The Swaziland Reserve contains about 1,750 square miles, and occupies the southwestern corner of Swaziland.

RHODESIA:

13. The Nweru Marsh Game Reserve is in northwestern Rhodesia, bordering the Congo Free State. The description of its local boundaries is quite unintelligible outside of Rhodesia.

Luangwa Reserve.—The locality of this reserve cannot be determined from the official description, which gives no clue to its shape or size.

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GAME PRESERVES IN AUSTRALASIA

NEW ZEALAND:

Little Barrier Island in the north, and Resolution Island, in the south; and concerning both, details are lacking.

AUSTRALIA:

Kangaroo Island, near Adelaide, South Australia, is 400 miles northwest of Melbourne. Of the total area of this rather large island of 300 square miles, 140 square miles have been set aside as a game preserve, chiefly for the preservation of the mallee bird (Lipoa occelata). It is believed that eventually the whole island will become a wild-life sanctuary, and it would seem that this can not be consummated a day too soon for the vanishing wild life.