70 DIGEST OF GAME LAWS FOR 1901. 



the United States protected by a special game statute. The Yellow- 

 stone National Park, with an area of 3,578 square miles, has also a 

 comprehensive law, passed in 189J:; and, like the Sequoia, Yosemite, 

 and General Grant parks, in California, is guarded by United States 

 troops. The Indian Territory, 31,400 square miles in extent, almost 

 as large as the State of Elaine, and one of the best regions in the South- 

 west for small game, is protected onl}" b}" a provision prohibiting 

 persons other than Indians from destroying game, except for food, in 

 the Indian country.^ The forest reserves, aggregating 46,766,529 

 acres, or about 73,000 square miles, an area nearly equal to that of 

 New England and New York combined, are subject to regulations of 

 the Secretary of the Interior, who is authorized by Congress to "make 

 provisions for protection against destruction by fire and depredations 

 upon public forests and forest reservations." There is further pro- 

 tection, however, in the provision of Congress that ofi'enses concerning 

 which the Federal laAvs are silent, when committed on Government 

 reservations, shall receive the same punishment as that prescribed for 

 like offenses bv the laws of the State in which such reservations are 

 situated. The great Territory- of Alaska, embracing 570,000 square 

 miles (more than twice the total area of Texas) is at present practically 

 without protection, having but the nucleus of a game law in a pro- 

 vision prohibiting the export of eggs of cranes, ducks, and geese. 



As a rule Federal laws are less subject to change than State laws. 

 The game law of the District of Columbia passed in 1878, remained 

 in force for twenty-one 3^ears; that of the Indian Territor}^ enacted 

 nearly seventy years ago (in 1832) is still on the statute books, and is 

 now the oldest game law in force in the United States. These laws 

 are scattered through the Revised Statutes and the Statutes at Large, 

 often in very obscure places, and are easih" overlooked. For example, 

 the prohibition against importing eggs of game birds is contained in 

 the free list of the tariff' act of 1897; that conferring authority on the 

 Secretary of the Interior to make regulations for the forest reserves, 

 in the sundr}' civil bill for 1897, and that providing for the enforce- 

 ment of State laws by Federal authority on Government reservations, 

 in an act to protect harbor defenses, passed in 1898. In the absence 

 of an}" complete compilation of the Federal provisions concerning 

 game, it has been deemed advisable to bring them together in the 

 present publication for greater convenience of reference. 



^ Such tribal laws as exist are not enforced bv the United States courts. 



