exhibitions that are given each year of the supreme confidence of protected deer literally astonish the natives. They are almost unafraid of man and his vehicles, his cattle and his horses, but of course they are unwilling to be handled. Strangers are astonished; but people who know something about the mental attitude of wild animals under protection know that it is the natural and inevitable result of _real protection_.
At Mr. Frank Seaman’s summer home in the Catskills, the phoebe birds nest on the beams under the roof of the porch. At my summer home in the Berkshires, no sooner was our garage completed than a phoebe built her nest on the edge of the lintel over the side door; and another built on a drain-pipe over the kitchen door.
Near Port Jervis, last year a wild ruffed grouse nested and reared a large brood in the garden of Mr. W.I. Mitchell, within _two feet_ of the foundation of the house.
On the Bull River in the wilds of British Columbia two trappers of my acquaintance, Mack Norboe and Charlie Smith, once formed a friendship with a wild weasel. In a very few visits, the weasel found that it was among friends, and the trappers’ log cabin became its home. I have a photograph of it, taken while it posed on the door-sill. The trappers said that often when returning at nightfall from their trap-lines, the weasel would meet them a hundred yards away on the trail, and follow them back to the cabin.
“Old Ben,” the big sea-lion who often landed on the wharf at Avalon, Santa Catalina, to be fed on fish, was personally known to thousands of people.
AN OBJECT LESSON IN PROTECTION.–A remarkable object lesson in the recognition of protection by wild ducks came under my notice in the pages of “Recreation Magazine” in June, 1903, when that publication was edited by G.O. Shields. The article was entitled,–” A Haven of Refuge,” and the place described well deserved the name. It is impossible for me to impress upon the readers of this volume with sufficient force and clearness the splendid success that is easily attainable in encouraging the return of the birds. The story of the Mosca “Haven of Refuge” was so well told by Mr. Charles C. Townsend in the publication referred to above, that I take pleasure in reproducing it entire.
One mile north of the little village of Mosca, Colorado, in San Luis valley, lives the family of J.C. Gray. On the Gray ranch there is an artesian well which empties into a small pond about 100 feet square. This pond is never entirely frozen over and the water emptying therein is warm even during the coldest winter.
Some five years ago, Mr. Gray secured a few wild-duck eggs, and hatched them under a hen. The little ducks were reared and fed on the little pond. The following spring they left the place, to return in the fall, bringing with them broods of young; also bringing other ducks to the home where protection was afforded them, and plenty of good feed was provided. Each year since, the ducks have scattered in the spring to mate and rear their families, returning again with greatly increased numbers in the fall, and again bringing strangers to the haven of refuge.
I drove out to the ranch November 24, 1902, and found the little pond almost black with the birds, and was fortunate enough to secure a picture of a part of the pond while the ducks were thickly gathered thereon. Ice had formed around the edges, and this ice was covered with ducks. The water was also alive with others, which paid not the least attention to the party of strangers on the shore.
From Mr. Gray I learned that there were some 600 ducks of various kinds on the pond at that time, though it was then early for them to seek winter quarters. Later in the year, he assured me, there would be between 2,000 and 3,000 teal, mallards, canvas-backs, redheads and other varieties, all perfectly at home and fearless of danger. The family have habitually approached the pond from the house, which stands on the south side, and should any person appear on the north side of the pond the ducks immediately take fright and flight. Wheat was strewn on the ground and in the water, and the ducks waddled around us within a few inches of our feet to feed, paying not the least attention to us, or to the old house-dog which walked near.
Six miles east of the ranch is San Luis lake, to which these ducks travel almost daily while the lake is open. When they are at the lake it is impossible to approach within gunshot of the then timid birds. Some unsympathetic boys and men have learned the habit of the birds, and place themselves in hiding along the course of flight to and from the lake. Many ducks are shot in this way, but woe to the person caught firing a gun on or near the home-pond. When away from home, the birds are as other wild-ducks and fail to recognize any members of the Gray family. While at home they follow the boys around the barn-yard, squawking for feed like so many tame ducks.
This is the greatest sight I have ever witnessed, and one that I could not believe existed until I had seen it. Certainly it is worth travelling many miles to see, and no one, after seeing it, would care to shoot birds that, when kindly treated, make such charming pets.
Since the above was published, the protected flocks of tame wild ducks have become one of the most interesting sights of Florida. At Palm Beach the tameness of the wild ducks when within their protected area, and their wildness outside of it, has been witnessed by thousands of visitors.
THE SAVING OF THE SNOWY EGRET IN THE UNITED STATES.–The time was when very many persons believed that the devastations of the plume-hunters of Florida and the Gulf Coast would be so long continued and so persistently followed up to the logical conclusion that both species of plume-furnishing egrets would disappear from the avifauna of the United States. This expectation gave rise to feelings of resentment, indignation and despair.
It happened, however, that almost at the last moment a solitary individual set on foot an enterprise calculated to preserve the snowy egret (which is the smaller of the two species involved), from final extermination. The splendid success that has attended the efforts of Mr. Edward A. McIlhenny, of Avery Island, Louisiana, is entitled not only to admiration and praise, but also to the higher tribute of practical imitation. Mr. McIlhenny is, first of all, a lover of birds, and a humanitarian. He has traveled widely throughout the continent of North America and elsewhere, and has seen much of wild life and man’s influence upon it. To-day his highest ambition is to create for the benefit of the Present, and as a heritage to Posterity, a mid-continental chain of great bird refuges, in which migrating wild fowl and birds of all other species may find resting-places and refuges during their migrations, and protected feeding-grounds in winter. In this grand enterprise, the consummation of which is now in progress, Mr. McIlhenny is associated with Mr. Charles Willis Ward, joint donor of the splendid Ward-McIlhenny Bird Preserve of 13,000 acres, which recently was presented to the State of Louisiana by its former owners.
The egret and heron preserve, however, is Mr. McIlhenny’s individual enterprise, and really furnished the motif of the larger movement. Of its inception and development, he has kindly furnished me the following account, accompanied by many beautiful photographs of egrets breeding in sanctuary, one of which appears on page 27.
In some recent publications I have seen statements to the effect that you believed the egrets were nearing extinction, owing to the persecution of plume hunters, so I know that you will be interested in the enclosed photographs, which were taken in my heron rookery, situated within 100 yards of my factory, where I am now sitting dictating this letter.
This rookery was started by me in 1896, because I saw at that time that the herons of Louisiana were being rapidly exterminated by plume hunters. My thought was that the way to preserve them would be to start an artificial rookery of them where they could be thoroughly protected. With this end in view I built a small pond, taking in a wet space that contained a few willows and other shrubs which grow in wet places.
In a large cage in this pond, I raised some snowy herons. After keeping the birds in confinement for something over six months I turned them loose, hoping that they would come back the next season, as they were perfectly tame and were used to seeing people. I was rewarded the next season by four of the birds returning, and nesting in the willows in the pond. This was the start of a rookery that now covers 35 acres, and contains more than twenty thousand pairs of nesting birds, embracing not only the egrets but all the species of herons found in Louisiana, besides many other water birds.
With a view to carrying on the preservation of our birds on a larger scale, Mr. Chas. W. Ward and I have recently donated to the State of Louisiana 13,000 acres of what I consider to be the finest wild fowl feeding ground on the Louisiana coast, as it contains the only gravel beach for 50 miles, and all of the geese within that space come daily to this beach for gravel. This territory also produces a great amount of natural food for geese and ducks.
SAVING THE GULLS AND TERNS.–But for the vigorous and long-continued efforts of the Audubon Societies, I think our coasts would by this time have been swept clean of the gulls and terns that now adorn it. Twenty years ago the milliners were determined to have them all. The fight for them was long, and hotly contested, but the Audubon Societies won. It was a great victory, and has yielded results of great value to the country at large. And yet, it was only a small number of persons who furnished the money and made the fight which inured to the benefit of the millions of American people. Hereafter, whenever you see an American gull or tern, remind yourself that it was saved to the nation by “the Audubon people.”
In times of grave emergency, such as fire, war and scarcity of food, the wild creatures forget their fear of man, and many times actually surrender themselves to his mercy and protection. At such times, hard is the heart and low is the code of manly honor that does not respond in a manner becoming a superior species.
The most pathetic wild-animal situation ever seen in the United States on a large scale is that which for six winters in succession forced several thousand starving elk into the settlement of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in quest of food at the hands of their natural enemies. The elk lost all fear, partly because they were not attacked, and they surrounded the log-enclosed haystacks, barns and houses, mutely begging for food. Previous to the winter of 1911, thousands of weak calves and cows perished around the haystacks. Mr. S.N. Leek’s wonderful pictures tell a thrilling but very sad story.
To the everlasting honor of the people of Jackson Hole, be it recorded that they rose like Men to the occasion that confronted them. In 1909 they gave to the elk herds all the hay that their domestic stock could spare, not pausing to ascertain whether they ever would be reimbursed for it. They just handed it out! The famishing animals literally mobbed the hay-wagons. To-day the national government has the situation in hand.
In times of peace and plenty, the people of Jackson Hole take their toll of the elk herds, but their example during starvation periods is to be commended to all men.
A SLAUGHTER OF RESTORED GAME.–The case of the chamois in Switzerland teaches the world a valuable lesson in how _not_ to slaughter game that has come back to its haunts through protected breeding.
A few years ago, one of the provinces of Switzerland took note of the fact that its once-abundant stock of chamois was almost extinct, and enacted a law by which the remnant was absolutely protected for a long period. During those years of protection, the animals bred and multiplied, until finally the original number was almost restored.
Then,–as always in such cases,–there arose a strong demand for an open season; and eventually the government yielded to the pressure of the hunters, and fixed a date whereon an open season should begin.
[Illustration: GULLS AND TERNS OF OUR COASTS, SAVED FROM DESTRUCTION These Birds have been Saved and Brought back to us by the Splendid Efforts of the Audubon Societies, and other Bird-Lovers. But for the Anti-Plumage Laws, not one Gull or Tern would now Remain on our Atlantic Coast From the “American Natural History”]
During the period preceding that fatal date, the living chamois, grown half tame by years of immunity from the guns, were all carefully located and marked down by those who intended to hunt them. At daybreak on the fatal day, the onset began. Guns and hunters were everywhere, and the mountains resounded with the fusillade. Hundreds of chamois were slain, by hundreds of hunters; and by the close of that fatal “open season” the species was more nearly exterminated throughout that region than ever before. Once more those mountains were nice and barren of game.
Let that bloody and disgraceful episode serve as a warning to Americans who are tempted to demand an open season on game that has bred back from the verge of extinction. Particularly do we commend it to the notice of the people of Colorado who _even now_ are demanding an open season on the preserved mountain sheep of that state. The granting of such an open season would be a brutal outrage. Those sheep are now so tame and unsuspicious that the killing of them would be _cold-blooded murder!_
THE LOGICAL CONCLUSION.–Within reasonable limits, any partly-destroyed wild species can be increased and brought back by giving absolute protection from harassment and slaughter. When a species is struggling to recuperate, it deserves to be left _entirely unmolested_ until it is once more on safe ground.
Every breeding wild animal craves seclusion and entire immunity from excitement and all forms of molestation. Nature simply demands this as her unassailable right. It is my firm belief that any wild species will breed in captivity whenever its members are given a degree of seclusion that they deem satisfactory.
With species that have not been shot down to a point entirely too low, adequate protection generously long in duration will bring back their numbers. If the people of the United States so willed it, we could have wild white-tailed deer in every state and in every county (save city counties) between the Atlantic and the Rocky Mountains. We could easily have one thousand bob white quail for every one now living. We could have squirrels in every grove, and songbirds by the million,–merely by protecting them from slaughter and molestation. From Ohio to the great plains, the pinnated grouse could be made far more common than crows and blackbirds.
Inasmuch as all this is true,–and no one with information will dispute it for a moment,–is it not folly to seek to supplant our own splendid native species of game birds (_that we never yet have decently protected!_) with foreign species? Let the American people answer this question with “Yes” or “No.”
The methods by which our non-game birds can be encouraged and brought back are very simple: Protect them, put up shelters for them, give them nest-boxes in abundance, protect them from cats, dogs, and all other forms of destruction, and feed those that need to be fed. I should think that every boy living in the country would find keen pleasure in making and erecting nest-boxes for martins, wrens, and squirrels; in putting up straw teepees in winter for the quail, in feeding the quail, and in nailing to the trees chunks of suet and fat pork every winter for the woodpeckers, nuthatches, and other winter residents.
Will any person now on this earth live long enough to see the present all-pervading and devilish spirit of slaughter so replaced by the love of wild creatures and the true spirit of conservation that it will be as rare as it now is common?
But let no one think for a moment that any vanishing species can at any time be brought back; for that would be a grave error. The point is always reached, by every such species, that the survivors are too few to cope with circumstances, and recovery is impossible. The heath hen could not be brought back, neither could the passenger pigeon. The whooping crane, the sage grouse, the trumpeter swan, the wild turkey, and the upland plover never will come back to us, and nothing that we can do ever will bring them back. Circumstances are against those species,–and I fear against many others also. Thanks to the fact that the American bison breeds well in captivity, we have saved that species from complete extinction, but our antelope seems to be doomed.
It is because of the alarming condition of our best wild life that quick action and strong action is vitally necessary. We are sleeping on our possibilities.
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CHAPTER XXXIV
INTRODUCED SPECIES THAT HAVE BEEN BENEFICIAL
Man has made numerous experiments in the transplantation of wild species of mammals and birds from one country, or continent, to another. About one-half these efforts have been beneficial, and the other half have resulted disastrously.
The transplantation of any wild-animal species is a leap in the dark. On general principles it is dangerous to meddle with the laws of Nature, and attempt to improve upon the code of the wilderness. Our best wisdom in such matters may easily prove to be short-sighted folly. The trouble lies in the fact that concerning transplantation it is _impossible for us to know beforehand all the conditions that will affect it, or that it will effect, and how it will work out_. In its own home a species may _seem_ not only harmless, but actually beneficial to man. We do not know, and _we can not know_, all the influences that keep it in check, and that mould its character. We do not know, and we can not know without a trial, how new environment will affect it, and what new traits of character it will develop under radically different conditions. The gentle dove of Europe may become the tyrant dove of Cathay. The Repressed Rabbit of the Old World becomes in Australia the Uncontrollable Rabbit, a devastator and a pest of pests.
No wild species should be transplanted and set free in a wild state to stock new regions without consulting men of wisdom, and following their advice. It is now against the laws of the United States to introduce and acclimatize in a wild state, anywhere in the United States, any wild-bird species without the approval of the Department of Agriculture. The law is a wise one. Furthermore, the same principle should apply to birds that it is proposed to transplant from one portion of the United States into another, especially when the two are widely separated.
On this point, I once learned a valuable lesson, which may well point my present moral. Incidentally, also, it was a narrow escape for me!
A gentlemen of my acquaintance, who admires the European magpie, and is well aware of its acceptable residence in various countries in Europe, once requested my cooperation in securing and acclimatizing at his country estate a number of birds of that species. As in duty bound, I laid the matter before our Department of Agriculture, and asked for an opinion. The Department replied, in effect, “Why import a foreign magpie when we have in the West a species of our own quite as handsome, and which could more easily be transplanted?”
The point seemed well taken. Now, I had seen much of the American magpie in its wild home,–the Rocky Mountains, and the western border of the Great Plains,–and I _thought_ I was acquainted with it. I knew that a few complaints against it had been made, but they had seemed to me very trivial. To me our magpie seemed to have a generally unobjectionable record.
Fortunately for me, I wrote to Mr. Hershey, Assistant Curator of Ornithology in the Colorado State Museum, for assistance in procuring fifty birds, for transplantation to the State of New York. Mr. Hershey replied that if I really wished the birds for acclimatization, he would gladly procure them for me; but he said that in the _thickly-settled farming communities_ of Colorado, the magpie is now regarded as a pest. It devours the eggs and nestlings of other wild birds, and not only that, it destroys so many eggs of domestic poultry that many farmers are compelled to keep their egg-laying hens shut up in wire enclosures!
Now, this condition happened to be entirely unknown to me, because I never had seen the American magpie in action _in a farming community_! Of course the proposed experiment was promptly abandoned, but it is embarrassing to think how near I came to making a mistake. Even if the magpies had been transplanted and had become a nuisance in this state, they could easily have been exterminated by shooting; but the memory of the error would have been humiliating to the party of the first part.
THE OLD WORLD PHEASANTS IN AMERICA.–In 1881 the first Chinese ring-necked pheasants were introduced into the United States, twelve miles below Portland, Oregon; twelve males and three females. The next year, Oregon gave pheasants a five-year close season. A little later, the golden and silver pheasants of China were introduced, and all three species throve mightily, on the Pacific Coast, in Oregon, Washington and western British Columbia. In 1900, the sportsmen of Portland and Vancouver were shooting cock golden pheasants according to law.
The success of Chinese and Japanese pheasants on the Pacific Coast soon led to experiments in the more progressive states, at state expense. State pheasant hatcheries have been established in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa and California.
In many localities, the old-world pheasants have come to stay. The rise and progress of the ring-neck in western New York has already been noted. It came about merely through protection. That protection was protection in fact, not the false “protection” that shoots on the sly. It is the irony of fate that full protection should be accorded a foreign bird, in order that it may multiply and possess the land, while the same kind of protection is refused the native bob white, and it is now almost a dead species, so far as this state is concerned.
In looking about for grievances against the ring-necked and English pheasant, some persons have claimed that in winter these birds are “budders,” which means that they harmfully strip trees and bushes of the buds that those bushes will surely need in their spring opening. On that point Dr. Joseph Kalbfus, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, sent out a circular letter of inquiry, in response to which he received many statements. With but one exception, all the testimony received was to the effect that pheasants are _not_ bud-eaters, and that generally the charge is unfounded.
The introduction of old-world pheasants, and the attempted introduction of the Hungarian partridge, are efforts designed first of all to furnish sportsmen something to shoot, and incidentally to provide a new food supply for the table. The people of this country are not starving, nor are they even very hungry for the meat of strange birds; but as a food-producer, the pheasant is all right.
It disgusts me to the core, however, to see states that wantonly and wickedly, through sheer apathy and lack of business enterprise, have allowed the quail, the heath hen, the pinnated grouse and the ruffed grouse to become almost exterminated by extravagant and foolish shooters, now putting forth wonderfully diligent efforts and spending money without end, in introducing _foreign_ species! Many men actually take the ground that our game “can’t live” in its own country any longer; but only the ignorant and the unthinking will say so! Give our game birds decent, sensible, _actual_ protection, stop their being slaughtered far faster than they breed, and _they will live anywhere in their own native haunts_! But where is there _one species_ of upland game bird in America that has been sensibly and adequately protected? From Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon there is _not one,–not a single locality in which protection from shooting has been sensible, or just, or adequate_.
We have universally given our American upland game birds an unfair deal, and now we are adding insult to slaughter by bringing in foreign game birds to replace them–because our birds “can’t live” before five million shot-guns!
Our American game birds CAN live, anywhere in the haunts where nature placed them that are not to-day actually occupied by cities and towns! Give me the making of the laws, and I will make the prairie chicken and quail as numerous throughout the northern states east of the Great Plains as domestic chickens are outside the regular poultry farms. There is only one reason why there are not ten million quail in the state of New York to-day,–one for each human inhabitant,–and that reason is the infernal greed and selfishness of the men who have almost exterminated our quail by over-shooting. Don’t talk to me about the “hard winters” killing off our quail! It is the hard cheek of the men who shoot them when they ought to let them alone.
The State of Iowa could support 500,000 prairie chickens and never miss the waste grain that they would glean in the fields; but now the prairie chicken is practically extinct in Iowa, only a few scattered specimens remaining as “last survivors” in some of the northern counties. The migration of those birds that unexpectedly came down from the north last winter was like the fall of a meteor,–only the birds promptly faded away again. Why should New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts exterminate the heath hen and coddle the ring-necked pheasant and the Hungarian partridge?
The introduction of the old-world pheasants interests me very little. Every one that I see is a painful reminder of our slaughtered quail and grouse,–the birds that never have had a square deal from the American people! Thus far the introduction of the Hungarian partridge has not been successful, anywhere. Connecticut, Missouri, New Jersey and I think other states have tried this, and failed. The failure of that species brings no sorrow to me. I prefer our own game birds; and if the American people will not conserve those properly and decently they deserve to have no game birds.
THE EUROPEAN RED DEER IN NEW ZEALAND.–Occasionally a gameless land makes a ten-strike by introducing a foreign game animal that does no harm, and becomes of great value. The greatest success ever made in the transplantation of game animals has been in New Zealand.
Originally, New Zealand possessed no large animals, and no “big-game.” When Nature passed around the deer, antelopes, sheep, goats, wild cattle and bears, New Zealand failed to receive her share. For centuries her splendid forests, her grand mountains and picturesque valleys remained untenanted by big game.
In 1864, the Prince Consort of England caused seven head of European red deer to be taken from the royal park at Windsor, and sent to Christchurch, New Zealand. Only three of the animals survived the long voyage; a buck and two does. For several weeks the two were kept in a barn in Christchurch, where they served no good purpose, and were not likely to live long or be happy. Finally some one said, “Let’s set them free in the mountains!”
The idea was adopted. The three animals were hauled an uncertain number of miles into the interior mountains and set free.
They promptly settled down in their new home. They began to breed, and now on the North Island there are probably five thousand European red deer, every one of which has descended directly from the famous three! And here is the strangest part of the story:
The red deer of the North Island represent the greatest case of in-and-in breeding of wild animals on record. According to the experience of the world in the breeding of domestic cattle (_not horses_), we should expect physical deterioration, the development of diseases, and disaster. On the contrary, the usual evil results of in-breeding in domestic cattle have been totally absent. _The red deer of New Zealand are to-day physically larger and more robust animals, with longer and heavier antlers, and longer hair, than any of the red deer of Europe west of Germany_!
Red deer have been introduced practically all over New Zealand, and the total number now in the Islands must be somewhere near forty thousand. The sportsmen of that country have grand sport, and take many splendid trophies. That transplantation has been a very great success. Incidentally, the case of the in-bred deer of the North Island, taken along with other cases of which we know, establishes a new and important principle in evolution. It is this:
_When healthy wild animals are established in a state of nature, either absolutely free, or confined in preserves so large that they roam at will, seek the food of nature and take care of themselves, in-and-in breeding produces no ill effects, and ceases to be a factor. The animals develop in physical perfection according to the climate and their food supply; and the introduction of new blood is not necessary_.
THE FALLOW DEER ON THE ISLAND OF LAMBAY.–In the Irish Sea, a few miles from the southeast coast of Ireland, is the Island of Lambay, owned by Cecil Baring, Esq. The island is precisely one square mile in area, and some of its sea frontage terminates in perpendicular cliffs. In many ways the island is of unusual interest to zoologists, and its fauna has been well set forth by Mr. Baring.
In the year 1892 three fallow deer (_Dama vulgaris_) a buck and two does, were transplanted from a park on the Irish mainland to Lambay, and there set free. From that slender stock has sprung a large herd, which, but for the many deer that have been purposely shot, and the really considerable number that have been killed by going over the cliffs in stormy weather, the progeny of the original three would to-day number several hundred head. No new blood has been introduced, and _no deer have died of disease_. Even counting out the losses by the rifle and by accidental death, the herd to-day numbers more than one hundred head.
Mr. Baring declares that neither he nor his gamekeeper have ever been able to discover any deterioration in the deer of Lambay, either in size, weight, size of antlers, fertility or general physical stamina. The deterioration through disease, especially tuberculosis, that always is dreaded and often observed in closely in-bred domestic cattle, has been totally absent.
In looking about for wild species that have been transplanted, and that have thriven and become beneficial to man, there seems to be mighty little game in sight! The vast majority belong in the next chapter. We will venture to mention the bob white quail that were introduced into Utah in 1871, into Idaho in 1875, and the California valley quail in Washington in 1857. Wherever these efforts have succeeded, the results have been beneficial to man.
In 1879 a well-organized effort was made to introduce European quail into several of the New England and Middle States,–to take the place of the bob white, we may suppose,–the bird that “can’t stand the winters!” About three thousand birds were distributed and set free,–and went down and out, just as might have been expected. During the past twenty years it is safe to say that not less than $500,000 have been expended in the northern states, and particularly in the northeastern states, in importing live quail from Kansas, the Indian Territory, Oklahoma, Texas, the Carolinas and other southern states, for restocking areas from which the northern bob white had been exterminated by foolish over-shooting! I think that fully nine-tenths of these efforts have ended in total failure. The quail could not survive in their strange environment. I cannot recall a _single instance_ in which restocking northern covers with southern quail has been a success.
There is no royal road to the restoration of an exterminated bird species. Where the native seed still exists, by long labor and travail, thorough protection and a mighty long close season, it can be encouraged to _breed back and return_; but it is an evolution that can not be hurried in the least. Protect Nature, and leave the rest to her.
With mammals, the case is different. It is possible to restock depleted areas, provided Time is recognized as a dominant factor. I can cite two interesting cases by way of illustration, but this subject will form another chapter.
In the transplantation of fishes, conditions are widely different, and many notable successes have been achieved.
One of the greatest hits ever made by the United States Bureau of Fisheries in the planting of fish in new localities was the introduction of the striped bass or rock-fish (_Roccus lineatus_) of our Atlantic coast, into the coast waters of California. In 1879, 135 live fish were deposited in Karquines Strait, at Martinez, and in 1882, 300 more were planted in Suisun Bay, near the first locality chosen.
Twelve years after the first planting in San Francisco Bay, the markets of San Francisco handled 149,997 pounds of striped bass. At that time the average weight for a whole year was eleven pounds, and the average price was ten cents per pound. Fish weighing as high as forty-nine pounds have been taken, and there are reasons for the belief that eventually the fish of California will attain as great weight as those of the Atlantic and the Gulf.
The San Francisco markets now sell, annually, about one and one half million pounds of striped bass. This fish has taken its place among anglers as one of the game fishes of the California coast, and affords fine sport. Strange to say, however, it has not yet spread beyond the shores of California.
Regarding this species, the records of the United States Bureau of Fisheries are of interest. In 1897, the California markets handled 2,949,642 pounds, worth $225,527.–(American Natural History.)
Nowhere else in the world, we venture to say, were such extensive, costly and persistent efforts put forth in the transplantation of any wild foreign species as the old U.S. Fish Commission, under Prof. Spencer F. Baird, put forth in the introduction of the German carp into the fresh water ponds, lakes and rivers of the United States. It was held that because the carp could live and thrive in waters bottomed with mud, that species would be a boon to all inland regions where bodies of water, or streams, were scarce and dear. Although the carp is not the best fish in the world for the table, it seemed that the dwellers in the prairie and great plains regions would find it far better than bullheads, or no fish at all,–which are about the same thing.
By means of special fish cars, sent literally all over the United States, at a great total expense, live carp, hatched in the ponds near the Washington Monument were distributed to all applicants. The German carp spread far and wide; but to-day I think the fish has about as many enemies as friends. In some places, strong objections have been filed to the manner in which carp stir up the mud at the bottom of ponds and small lakes, greatly to the detriment of all the native fishes found therein.
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CHAPTER XXXV
INTRODUCED SPECIES THAT HAVE BECOME PESTS
The man who successfully transplants or “introduces” into a new habitat any persistent species of living thing, assumes a very grave responsibility. Every introduced species is doubtful gravel until panned out. The enormous losses that have been inflicted upon the world through the perpetuation of follies with wild vertebrates and insects would, if added together, be enough to purchase a principality. The most aggravating feature of these follies in transplantation is that never yet have they been made severely punishable. We are just as careless and easy-going on this point as we were about the government of the Yellowstone Park in the days when Howell and other poachers destroyed our first national bison herd, and when caught red-handed–as Howell was, skinning seven Park bison cows,–_could not be punished for it, because there was no penalty prescribed by any law_.
To-day, there is a way in which any revengeful person could inflict enormous damage on the entire South, at no cost to himself, involve those states in enormous losses and the expenditure of vast sums of money, yet go absolutely unpunished!
THE GYPSY MOTH is a case in point. This winged calamity was imported at Maiden, Massachusetts, near Boston, by a French entomologist, Mr. Leopold Trouvelot, in 1868 or ’69. History records the fact that the man of science did not purposely set free the pest. He was endeavoring with live specimens to find a moth that would produce a cocoon of commercial value to America; and a sudden gust of wind blew out of his study, through an open window, his living and breeding specimens of the gypsy moth. The moth itself is not bad to look at, but its larvae is a great, overgrown brute, with an appetite like a hog. Immediately Mr. Trouvelot sought to recover his specimens, and when he failed to find them all. like a man of real honor, he notified the State authorities of the accident. Every effort was made to recover all the specimens, but enough escaped to produce progeny that soon became a scourge to the trees of Massachusetts. The method of the big, nasty-looking mottled-brown caterpillar was very simple. It devoured the entire foliage of every tree that grew in its sphere of influence.
The gypsy moth spread with alarming rapidity and persistence. In course of time the state authorities of Massachuestts were forced to begin a relentless war upon it, by poisonous sprays and by fire. It was awful! Up to this date (1912) the New England states and the United States Government service have expended in fighting this pest about $7,680,000!
The spread of this pest has been retarded, but the gypsy moth never will be wholly stamped out. To-day it exists in Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Hampshire, and it is due to reach New York at an early date. It is steadily spreading in three directions from Boston, its original point of departure, and when it strikes the State of New York, we, too, will begin to pay dearly for the Trouvclot experiment. It is said that General S.C. Lawrence, of Medford, Massachusetts, has spent $75,000 in trying to protect his trees from the ravages of this scourge.
THE RABBIT PLAGUE IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND.–The rabbit curse upon Australia and New Zealand is so well known as to require little comment. In this case the introduction was deliberate. In the days when the sheep industry was most prosperous, a patriotic gentleman conceived the idea that the introduction of the rabbit, and its establishment as a wild animal, would be a good thing. He reasoned that it would furnish a good food supply, that it would furnish sport, and being unable to harm any other creature of flesh and blood it was therefore harmless. Accordingly, three pairs of rabbits were imported and set free.
In a short time, the immense number of rabbits that began to overrun the country furnished food for reflection, as well as for the table. A very simple calculation brought out the startling information that, under perfectly favorable conditions, a single pair of rabbits could in three years’ time produce progeny amounting to 13,718,000 individuals. Ever since that time, in discussing the rabbits of Australia it has been necessary to speak in millions.
“The inhabitants of the colony,” says Dr. Richard Lydekker, “soon found that the rabbits were a plague, for they devoured the grass, which was needed for the sheep, the bark of trees, and every kind of fruit and vegetable, until the prospects of the colony became a very serious matter, and ruin seemed inevitable. In New South Wales upwards of 15,000,000 rabbits skins have been exported in a single year; while in thirteen years ending with 1889 no less than 39,000,000 were accounted for in Victoria alone.
“To prevent the increase of these rodents, the introduction of weasels, stoats, mongooses, etc., has been tried; but it has been found that those carnivores neglected the rabbits and took to feeding on poultry, and thus became as great a nuisance as the animals they were intended to destroy. The attempt to kill them off by the introduction of an epidemic disease has also failed. In order to protect such portions of the country as are still free from rabbits, fences of wire netting have been erected; one of these fences erected by the Government of Victoria extending for a distance of upwards of one hundred and fifty geographical miles. In New Zealand, where the rabbit has been introduced little more than twenty years, its increase has been so enormous, and the destruction it inflicts so great, that in some districts it has actually been a question whether the colonists should not vacate the country rather than attempt to fight against the plague. The average number of rabbit skins exported from New Zealand is now twelve millions.”–(Royal Natural History.)
THE FOX PEST IN AUSTRALIA.–And now unfortunate Australia has a new pest, also acquired by importation of an alien species. It is the European fox (_Vulpes vulpes_). The only redeeming feature about this fresh calamity is found in the fact that the species was not deliberately introduced into Australia for the benefit of the local fauna. Mr. O.W. Rosenhain, of Melbourne, informs me (1912) that about thirty years ago the Hunt Club brought to Australia about twenty foxes, for the promotion of the noble sport of fox hunting. In some untoward manner, the most of those animals escaped. They survived, multiplied, and have provided New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia with a fox pest of the first rank.
The destruction of wild bird life and poultry has become so serious that Australia now is making vigorous efforts to exterminate the pest. The government pays ten shillings bounty on fox scalps, besides which each prime fox skin is worth from four to five dollars. It is hoped that these combined values will eliminate the fox pest.
Regarding foxes in Australia, Mr. W.H.D. Le Souef has this to say in his extremely interesting and valuable book, “Wild Life in Australia,” page 146:
“We found that foxes were unfortunately plentiful in this district, and in a hollow log that served to shelter some cubs were noticed the remains of ducks, fowls, rabbits, lambs, bandicoots and snakes; so they evidently vary their fare, snakes even not coming amiss. They also sneak on wild ducks that are nesting by the edge of the water among the rushes and tussocky grass, and catch quail also, especially sitting birds. _These animals are, and always will be, a great source of trouble in the thickly timbered country and stony ranges, and will gradually, like the rabbit, extend all over Australia_. They are evidently not contented with ground game only, as Mr. A.F. Kelly, of Barwonleigh, in Victoria, states: “When riding past a bull-oak tree about twenty-five feet high, with either a magpie’s or crow’s nest on top. I noticed the nest looked very bulky, and had something red in it. On going nearer I saw a large fox coiled up in it!”
THE MONGOOSE.–Circumstances alter cases, and a change of environment sometimes works marvelous changes in the character of an animal species. Now, _why_ should not the gray Indian mongoose (formerly called the ichneumon, _(Herpestes griscus_)) destroy poultry in India, as it does elsewhere? There is poultry in plenty to be destroyed, but “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” elects to specialize on the killing of rats, and cobras, and other snakes.
In his own sphere of influence,–India and the orient,–the mongoose is a fairly decent citizen, and he fits into the time-worn economy of that region. As a destroyer of the thrice-anathema domestic rat, he has no equal in the domain of flesh and blood. His temper is so fierce that one “pet” mongoose has been known to kill a full grown male giant bustard, and put a greyhound to flight.
In an evil moment (1872) Mr. W.B. Espeut conceived the idea that it would be a good thing to introduce mongooses to the rats of Barbadoes and Jamaica that were pestering the cane-fields to an annoying extent. It was done. The mongooses attacked the rats, cleaned them out, multiplied, and then looked about for more worlds to conquer. Snakes and lizards were few; but they cheerfully killed and devoured all there were. Then, being continuously hungry, they attacked the wild birds and poultry, indiscriminately, and with their usual vigor. I have been told that in Barbadoes “they cleaned out every living thing that they could catch and kill, and then they attacked the sugar-cane.” The last count in the indictment may seem hard to believe; but it is a fact that the Indian mongoose often resorts to fruit and vegetable food.
In Jamaica, at the end of the rat-killing period, the planters joyfully estimated that the labors of Herpestes had saved between 500,000 pounds and 750,000 pounds to the industries of that island. That was before the slaughter of wild birds and poultry began. I am told that up to date the damage done by the mongoose far exceeds the value of the benefit it once conferred, but the total has not been computed.
Up to this date, the mongoose has invaded and become a destructive pest in Barbadoes, Jamaica, Cuba, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Trinidad, Nevis, Fiji and all the larger islands of the Hawaiian group. It would require many pages to contain a full account of each introduction, awakening, reckoning of damages and payment of bounties for destruction that the fiendish mongoose has wrought out wherever it has been introduced. The progress of the pest is everywhere the same,–sweeping destruction of rats, snakes, wild birds, small mammals, and finally poultry and vegetables.
Every country that now is without the mongoose will do well to shut and guard diligently all the doors by which it might be introduced.
Throughout its range in the western hemisphere, the mongoose is a pest; and the Biological Survey of the Department of Agriculture has done well in securing the enactment of a law peremptorily prohibiting the importation of any animals of that species into the United States or any of its colonies. The fierce temper, indomitable courage and vaulting appetite of the mongoose would make its actual introduction in any of the warm portions of the United States a horrible calamity. In the southern states, and all along the Pacific slope clear up to Seattle, it could live, thrive and multiply; and the slaughter that it could and would inflict upon our wild birds generally, especially all those that nest and live on the ground, saying nothing of the slaughter of poultry, would drive the American people crazy.
Fancy an animal with the murderous ferocity of a mink, the agility of a squirrel, the penetration of a ferret and the cunning of a rat, infesting the thickets and barnyards of this country. The mongoose can live wherever a rat can live, provided it can get a fair amount of animal food. Not for $1,000,000 could any one of the southern or Pacific states afford to have a pair of these little gray fiends imported and set free. If such a calamity ever occurs, all wheels should stop, and every habitant should turn out and hunt for the animals until they are found and pulverized. No matter if it should require a thousand men and $100,000, _find them!_ If not found, the cost to the state will soon be a million a year, with no ending.
In spite of the vigilance of our custom house officers, every now and then a Hindoo from some foreign vessel sneaks into the country with a pet mongoose (and they do make great pets!) inside his shirt, or in the bottom of a bag of clothing. Of course, whenever the Department of Agriculture discovers any of these surreptitious animals, they are at once confiscated, and either killed or sent to a public zoological park for safe-keeping. In New York, the director of the Zoological Park is so genuinely concerned about the possibility of the escape of a female mongoose that he has issued two standing orders: All live mongooses offered to us shall at once be purchased, and every female animal shall immediately be chloroformed.
If _Herpestes griseus_ ever breaks loose in the United States, the crime shall not justly be chargeable to us.
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.
[Illustration: UNITED STATES NATIONAL GAME PRESERVES and Five Pacific Bird Refuges]
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.
* * * * *
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
* * * * *
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).
* * * * *
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.
[Illustration: BIRD RESERVATIONS ON THE GULF COAST AND FLORIDA]
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.”
* * * * *
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!
* * * * *
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