Monthly Bulletin 11 



area being a public game preserve, and setting forth its purpose. Com- 

 missioner Phillips assured me that poaching was not at all common, and 

 that the respect for the sanctuary was widespread. He cited one case in 

 which a man had been caught inside, but said it was apparently because 

 he had walked under the wire at a point where it was higher than it should 

 have been. 



As soon as possible a guardian is put in charge. He is given a house 

 which is placed outside the enclosed area and surrounded by land suitable 

 for a garden. The state furnishes this house. This warden keeps his 

 areas posted with fresh signs, keeps all people out of the place in the 

 open season, and also see to the enforcement of the laws in the surround- 

 ing territory. He is furnished with traps and not only gets the state boun- 

 ties on vermin, $8.00 for wildcats, $2.00 for foxes and weazels, and $1.00 

 for mink) but also is allowed to sell the furs he catches. The cost of 

 creating such a sanctuary is placed at $2175, and for maintaining it about 

 $1174 a year. This does not include the extra men that are put in dur- 

 ing the open season to help out the resident warden. No visitors are al- 

 lowed inside the wire during the open season, but at all other times any- 

 one can pass to and fro, and fishing is allowed in season. 



The other type of preserve is the auxiliary sanctuary, which is simply 

 a private-owned tract of land turned over to the state as a preserve by the 

 owner for a certain number of years. These are smaller areas and are 

 located among farm lands. Not much is said about this plan and it is 

 hard to make out just how successfully it has worked. 



Information on these Pennsylvania preserves can be had from a leaflet 

 (Bui. No. 5) Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 1919, published by the state. 

 There is also a very full exposition of the results of the scheme in the 

 bulletin of the American Game Protective Association for January, 1920. 

 I also have a copy of a letter from the Secretary of the Pennsylvania Game 

 Commission to Commissioner W. C. Adams of Massachusetts. 



It is very important to note that Pennsylvania is solving the preserva- 

 tion of public shooting grounds, as well as that of game refuges. It 

 would be almost useless to set aside a large sanctuary unless the public 

 had access to the immediate vicinity of it, for all the good hunting sur- 

 rounding it would soon be posted by private owners. 



Pennsylvania is very fortunate in having a large area of primitive 

 forest land and much large game for an eastern state. It is said that 

 about 600,000 gunners took out licenses in Pennsylvania last year. This 

 number is very much larger than one would expect from a state like 

 Pennsylvania. Although not all the returns were complete in Janu- 

 ary, it is estimated that over 400 bears, over 5000 turkeys, and many 

 thousand deer were shot last season. It is said that from 40,000 to 50,000 

 deer hunters go out with rifles during the two weeks of the deer season. 

 Mr. Phillips made an estimate of the number of deer tracks going and 

 coming from one of the sanctuaries during the first day of the open sea- 

 son. There had been a new fall of snow, and it was found that 84 deer 

 had gone into the refuge and only 14 had come out, showing that these 

 animals soon learn the value of the guarded tracts. 



