48 GAME REFUGES. 



my State. A man had applied to have a certain reservoir site re- 

 served; he proposed to spend $200,000 or $300,000 in creating a 

 reservoir. They took his maps — his reservoir was almost circular — 

 and made one of these preserves 400 feet wide, a doughnut around 

 his reservoir. He never built his reservoir and it is all dry land 

 to-day. You can not hunt in that country without being in danger 

 of going across that unmarked 400 feet of Federal preserve and vio- 

 lating a Federal law, though you may be hunting in accordance with 

 the State law. If they had enforced the law with regard to that 

 particular bird preserve there would no doubt have been several of 

 my constituents in Federal jails right now. The only reason why 

 no one has tested that law is that there has been little effort to en- 

 force it. Whenever it is enforced it will be tested, just as the migra- 

 tory bird law is being tested. That law was drawn using language 

 that is capable of double construction " which have been set apart or 

 reserved." 



The committee that reported it would not have reported it without 

 the word " heretofore " in it if there had not been pledges and promises 

 by men that they considered upright and honorable that they did 

 not intend to interpret that as authorizing new preserves. It would 

 apply, we were told, to bird preserves that had theretofore been 

 established. It is a fine illustration of what is sometimes done, in 

 persuading Congress to make a grant of power on the theory that it 

 does not go far and does not affect much, but being secured everything 

 is claimed under it. All kinds of conflicts will arise under that law 

 eventually, not with regard to these outlying islands, but with regard 

 to these bird preserves that surround reclamation reservoirs where 

 the conflicts are bound to be continuous if any regulations differing 

 from State law are enforced. 



Mr. Jacoway. Following out your theory, then, you think the 

 camel has gotten about half his body into the tent up to date ? 



Mr. Mondell. He has gotten his nose in under that law. Having 

 had that experience, we are a little more careful than we were even 

 at that time. I do not want to leave a wrong impression. I am not 

 insisting that the Federal Government has no right to keep hunters 

 off of its lands; I think it has the right to do that, but it has not any 

 right to define and punish as a crime the taking of game. 



Mr. Reilly. Of what good is it to exercise that right to keep them 

 off the land if they have not the right to punish for taking game 

 improperly ? 



Mr. Mondell. It has the right to punish trespassers; to punish 

 for trespass and for injury to its property. The courts have never 

 held that the Federal Government had any authority or jurisdiction 

 except to protect its property. It has the right to do that. Our 

 opposition is not based upon the theory that we do not want the game 

 preserved, but it is based upon the fact that we do not think this is 

 the way to do it. 



Mr. Williams. Let me state for the information of the committee, 

 since the question has been asked, that I believe there are about 70 

 Federal bird preserves now. 



So far as elk, moose, antelope, deer, and mountain sheep are con- 

 cerned, if you put the whole State of Colorado in these preserves 

 you would do no more than the Legislature of Colorado has already 

 done. Dr. Hornaday says that Colorado game preservation laws are 

 proof there is little or no game there. On the contrary, if there was 



