xxii MAMMALS OF AMERICA 



OTHER GAME REFUGES 



The national military parks have been created on a few of the battle fields to com- 

 memorate some of the more important engagements of the Civil War in Pennsylvania, 

 Maryland, Georgia, Tennessee, and Mississippi. The total area of the five parks is 11,348 

 acres. They are under the jurisdiction of the War Department, and each of those at 

 Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Shiloh, and Vicksburg is administrated by a special commission 

 of three members which reports annually to the Secretary of War. Their importance as 

 refuges is due to the fact that they furnish absolute protection at all seasons to small 

 mammals and birds under a comprehensive law for the protection of wild life, enacted in 

 1897. Moreover, their location is such that, taking into consideration other military 

 reservations, as the national cemeteries at Arlington and Fredericksburg, Va., and at other 

 points, they practically form a chain of refuges for migratory land birds almost directly in 

 the line of their northward flight. 



In addition to the above, the Federal Government maintains several reservations, 

 chiefly for big game. These comprise two national game preserves in Arizona and 

 Oklahoma; the National Bison Range in Montana; the Mount Olympus National 

 Monument in Washington; the Muir Woods and Pinnacles National Monuments in 

 California; the Colorado National Monument; and the Mukuntuweap National Monument 

 in Utah. The Department of Agriculture has jurisdiction over the two game preserves 

 and the Mount Olympus National Monument, which are under the immediate charge of 

 the Forest Service, and the Bison range which is in charge of the Biological Survey ; and the 

 Department of the Interior has jurisdiction over the other four national monuments. The 

 wild life on the game preserves and the national monuments is protected by the acts under 

 which these reservations were created; and the buffalo on the Bison Range and the elk on 

 the Mount Olympus National Monument are protected throughout the year under the game 

 laws of Montana and Washington. 



The national game reservations and the Bison Range are the only reservations which 

 have been stocked with big game. On the Wichita Preserve in Oklahoma and on the 

 Bison Range in Montana are herds of buffalo donated, respectively, by the New York 

 Zoological Society in 1907, and the American Bison Society in 1909. The Wichita preserve 

 has also a few deer. The big game on the Grand Canyon preserve is limited to deer and 

 mountain sheep, which are now fairly abundant. 



t The Mount Olympus National Monument is the home of many deer and the summer 

 range of the Roosevelt elk. Recent estimates indicate that the elk on the Olympic 

 National Forest have increased to several thousand head. The Muir Woods, consisting of a 

 grove of magnificent redwood trees in Marin County, California, shelter a few deer and also 

 afford protection to small mammals and birds which here receive protection throughout 

 the year. The Colorado and the Mukuntuweap National Monuments, comprising rugged 

 canyons, give protection to various birds and small mammals. 



Several national reservations have become game preserves through subsequent State 

 legislation, which has made them wholly or in part State game preserves. With the 

 exception of the Pinnacles Preserve in California, they are all in national forests, and as 

 hunting is permitted in national forests, they are the only parts of the forests, except the 

 few monuments and bird reserves and two game preserves, which actually form refuges. 

 The largest is the Superior National Forest in Minnesota, which was made a State game 

 preserve soon after the establishment of the national forest. In each case the game is 

 protected primarily by State laws and the reservation patrolled and maintained by 

 cooperation between the State and the General Government. 



