SPHERE OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 



45 



in aid of railways or other public enterprises. It may open 

 them to preemption or homestead settlement. . . ." 42 



Whether the principle of state ownership of wild game 

 extends to public lands of the United States depends upon 

 the act admitting the state to the Union, which may except 

 such lands from state sovereignty, as in the case of certain 

 Indian reservations in Kansas. 43 In the absence of such 

 exception the constitutional rule of state equality would 

 apply and the state would have sovereignty over all lands 

 within her boundaries. 4 * The same situation arises when the 

 state by act of its legislature expressly waives its sovereign 

 rights and allows the national government complete juris- 

 diction over land purchased within its borders for reserva- 

 tion purposes. 45 



Notwithstanding the principle that the state owns all wild 

 game while it remains within her borders, Congress may 

 withdraw public lands from sale 46 and set them aside as 

 national parks, forests, or bird reservations, closing them to 

 all forms of hunting without consulting the state concerned. 

 In addition, it has often authorized the President to do like- 

 wise by executive order. 47 Indeed, upon the grounds of 

 long-continued custom, the courts have upheld the Presi- 



42 Camfield v. United States, 167 U. S. 521 (1896) ; see also Butte City 

 Water Co. v. Baker, 196 U. S. 126 (1904) ; and Light v. United States, 

 220 U. S. 523 (1911). 



43 Cited in Ward v. Race Horse, 163 U. S. 504 (1896) at p. 519. See 

 also Montana Const. Ordinance No. i, division 2d. 



44 Ibid. 



45 United States Constitution, art. i, sec. 8. 



46 Ibid. 



47 Act of Congress, June 8, 1906, authorizing the President to withdraw 

 such lands from sale as found necessary to establish a monument reserve 

 embracing the Grand Canyon of the Colorado held valid in Cameron v. 

 United States, 252 U. S. 450 (1920). 



