Yellowstone Park Pr©tection Act 



justice indeed. The Club had desired that the law 

 should be extended by Congress over the Yellowstone 

 Park Forest Reserve, but legal difificulties were encoun- 

 tered, so that this protection had to be deferred. It is to 

 be hoped that in the near future this important adjunct 

 to the Park may have the same law applied to it. 



The Park is now on a solid foundation, and all that 

 is necessary for its future welfare is the prevention of 

 adverse legislation cutting down its limits or authoriz- 

 ing railroads within it. In the winter of 1894-95 the 

 railroad scheme, now disguised under the form of a 

 bill to regulate the boundaries of the Park, came up 

 again. This was the old segregation plan. It aimed 

 not only to cut off from the Park that valuable portion 

 already described, and embracing 367 square miles north 

 of the Yellowstone, but also to make extensive cuts in 

 the Forest Reserve for railroad and other purposes, 

 amounting to 640 square miles. This spoliation was not 

 permitted. Congress seemed at last to be determined to 

 support the Park intact, and the Committee of the Fifty- 

 fourth Congress in the House having the Park legislation 

 in charge manifested this disposition by adverse reports 

 on all the bills to authorize railroads and on the segre- 

 gation bill as well. 



The present boundaries only need marking on the 

 ground — a mere matter of departmental action. There 

 is no need of legislation on the subject. The bounda- 

 ries, especially on the north, afford such natural features 

 as constitute the best possible barrier to prevent depre- 

 dation from without, and to insure the retention of the 

 game within, the Park. Notwithstanding the inadequacy 

 of the protection in former years, the game has increased 



417 



