The Creating of Game Refuges 



a constantly increasing population, and an ever- 

 increasing interest in big-game hunting. The 

 designation of one Game Refuge in the Sierra 

 Reserve would practically not reduce the slaughter 

 of deer in this whole vast region of southern Cali- 

 fornia. Were the single Game Refuge, which 

 might under the law be designated, to be placed 

 in southern California, even although it embraced 

 the entire area of the seven southern reserves, it 

 would not aid to any great extent in preventing 

 the extinction of game in the region of the Sierra 

 Reserve, of the Stanislaus Reserve, or of the great 

 reserves which are doubtless soon to be created in 

 the northern half of the State. A bill so conceived 

 would not fulfill the purpose of its creation. 



There are just as cogent reasons of a positive 

 nature why many small refuges are preferable to 

 a few large ones. It is said that in the vicinity of 

 George Vanderbilt's game preserves at Biltmore, 

 North Carolina, deer, when started by dogs even 

 fifteen or twenty miles away, will seek shelter 

 within the limits of that protected forest, know- 

 ing perfectly well that once within its bounds they 

 will not be disturbed. The same may be observed 

 in the vicinity of the Yellowstone National Park; 

 the bears, for instance, a canny folk, and shrewd 

 to read the signs of the times, seem to be well 



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