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HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 997 
Mr. Brooks. If the forest ranger remains where he is, and is given 
the power to arrest the trespasser, does not that solve the problem? 
The only authority he needs in addition to what he has now is author- 
ity to arrest for depredation. He is charged with the duty now in 
general of being the game warden, but there is not coupled with that 
the right to arrest? 
Mr. Merriam. You are right there. 
Mr. Scorr. What are the value of his services if he can not arrest? 
Mr. Brooxs. A good deal. 
Mr. Scorr. I think in some places he would have to go 200 miles to 
get a warrant. 
Mr. Brooxs. That is why he ought to have the right to arrest a 
trespasser in the act. 
Mr. Ropry. It will be too bad if you let the only species of elk 
there is die out. They ought to be taken care of. 
Mr. Merriam. It is a noble game animal, and it would not be cred- 
itable to us to let it become extinct, especially when the owners of them 
have made a present of them to the Government, and will be to the 
expense of corralling the elk and loading them for us. Mr. Chairman, 
I want it distinctly understood that this matter of the elk is nothing 
that the Biological Survey took the initiative in. It was something 
thrown on us, and we felt that these animals ought to be preserved 
from extinction and that here was an opportunity to do it at really 
very small expense, so long as the land was kept by the Government 
as a permanent national park, anyway. 
The CHatrMAn. Have you seen these elk yourself? 
Mr. Merriam. Yes. 
The Cnarrman. Are they naturally a very wild animal? 
Mr. Merriam. They are rather a timid animal, but they are not so 
wild as elk are usually where they never see persons. They see the 
cowboys going back and forth on horseback, and if they do not come 
too near they are not disturbed by them. 
Mr. Henry. How large are they? 
Mr. Merriam. They are a small elk; smaller than the big elk of 
the Rocky Mountains. 
The Cuarrman. They are no longer useful as a food supply ? 
Mr. Merriam. No. 
The Cuarrman. Were they ever numerous enough for food supply ? 
Mr. Merriam. Yes; thousands and thousands of them have been 
killed for food by the early settlers and miners of California. They 
used to swarm in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys. 
The Cuarrman. You admit it would not be possible to establish these 
in the food supply? 
Mr. Merriam. Not food enough for any consequence, because there 
is not land enough available for them to multiply on. The land is used 
for other purposes—the land they used to range over—until the range 
is contracted more every year. 
Mr. Ropry. Why is it not possible to range buffalo as it is cattle? 
Mr. Merriam. There is no land available for that purpose. 
The Cuarrman. Cattle are taking the place of buffalo. 
Mr. Ropsy. I did not know but that buffalo was just as good meat 
as cattle. 
The Crarrman. There is not the same amount of good beef in a buf- 
falo; there is very little good beef in a buffalo. 
