The Boone and Crockett Club 



"This should not be so. If it was worth while 

 to establish these reserves, it is worth while to pro- 

 tect them. * * * The timber and the game ought 

 to be made the absolute property of the govern- 

 ment, and it should be constituted a punishable of- 

 fense to appropriate such property within the limits 

 of the reservation. * * * 



"The national parks and forest reserves * * * 

 by proper protection may become great game pre- 

 serves. * * * In these reservations is to be found 

 to-day every species of large game known to tHe 

 United States, and the proper protection of the 

 reservations means perpetuating in full supply of all 

 these indigenous mammals." 



The abuses here alluded to were in part 

 remedied by the Act of May 7, 1894, but only so 

 far as concerned the Yellowstone Park. To 

 protect the Yellowstone Park was well for the 

 Yellowstone and the surrounding country, but did 

 nothing for the rest of the country. The Club 

 urged then, and still insists, that portions of the 

 forest reserves shall be set aside as game refuges 

 where the killing of wild animals shall be abso- 

 lutely forbidden. Constant efforts have been made 

 to emphasize this, and long before he took the 

 Presidential chair, Theodore Roosevelt spoke in 

 its behalf before many associations. 



474 



