The Boone and Crockett Club 



erty of the farmers. Large refuges in one or more 

 of the forest reserves at such altitudes that the elk 

 would not be forced to leave them at the approach 

 of winter, as they do in the Yellowstone Park, 

 would soon be filled, and the elk would scatter out 

 among the mountains, for the benefit of the 

 adjacent public. 



In the second session of the Fifty-seventh Con- 

 gress a bill providing for the establishment of 

 game refuges by the President in public forest 

 reserves, not exceeding one in each State or Terri- 

 tory, passed the Senate February 7, 1903, and 

 went to the House, where it failed. The bill 

 provided that the killing or capturing of game 

 animals, birds and fish upon the lands and in the 

 waters of the United States within the limits of 

 said area shall be unlawful, and that any one 

 violating the provisions of the Act should, on con- 

 viction, be fined not more than a thousand dollars 

 or imprisoned for a period not exceeding one year, 

 or suffer both fine and imprisonment, at the dis- 

 cretion of the court. The purpose of the Act was 

 declared to be to protect from trespass the public 

 lands of the United States, the game animals, birds 

 and fish thereon, and not to interfere with the 

 local game laws as affecting private State or 

 Territorial lands. 



477 



