THE LEAGUE OF AMERICAN SPORTSMEN. 



OFFICERS OF THK L. A. S. 



President, G. O. Shields, 19 W. 24th St., 

 New York. 



1st Vice-President, Dr. C. Hart Merriam, 

 Washington, B.C. 



2d Vice-President, E. S. Thompson, 144 

 Fifth Ave., New York. 



3d Vice-President, Hon. W. A. Richards, 

 Cheyenne, Wyo. 



4th Vice-President, W. T: Hornaday, 69 

 Wall St., New York. 



jt/i Vice-President, A. A. Anderson, 93 

 Fifth Ave., New York. 



Secretary, Arthur F. Rice, 155 Pennington 

 Ave., Passaic, N. J. 



Treasurer, F. S. Hyatt, Clinton Bank, 

 New York. 



LET JACKSON'S HOLE BE ADDED TO THE 

 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 



Jackson, Wyo. 

 Editor Recreation: I have your letter 

 requesting me to join the L. A. S. I am 

 heartily in favor of every principle the L. 

 A. S. upholds, and intended to join. Was 

 in hopes the members of our Gun Club 

 (about 40) would join, and thereby have a 

 branch of the L. A. S. here; but you rec- 

 ommend taking Jackson's Hole into the 

 park, and we cannot join and thereby ap- 

 prove of having our homes taken from us. 

 Recreation has many friends in this val- 

 ley and they are somewhat surprised at the 

 course you are taking. Is it your intention 

 to try to have this whole valley taken into 

 the Park? S. N. Leek. 



ANSWER. 



I am getting into a lot of trouble with 

 my Western friends. One of them has re- 

 quested me to call down Mr. Litchfield, 

 for shipping game East and putting it in 

 his private park. I stated my views on this 

 subject, in May Recreation. Now I am 

 under the painful necessity of stating my 

 views on another important subject; and 

 am fully aware that in doing so, I shall in- 

 cur the disfavor of many of my good friends 

 in Jackson's Hole. 



I am emphatically in favor of extending 

 the limits of the Yellowstone National Park 

 to include the timber reserve on the East 

 and Jackson's Hole on the South. 



No one regrets more deeply than I do 

 that this would entail great hardship on 

 the settlers in Jackson's Hole; but this is 

 another of the numerous cases where, in 

 the course of human progress, certain indi- 

 viduals must suffer for the public good. 



In common with many thousands of pro- 

 gressive people, all over the world. I want 

 to see the large game animals of this con- 



tinent permanently preserved; and experi- 

 ence has shown that this cannot be done 

 in the Yellowstone Park, as now situated. 

 The herd of buffalo there has dwindled 

 from 400 to '30 or 40. Of course, the elk 

 have increased rapidly, but they have out- 

 grown the feed in the park and great num- 

 bers of them must move out into the Teton 

 country, to graze. Here they are imme- 

 diately set upon by an army of hunters, in 

 the open season, to say nothing of the 

 bands of Indians that descend upon them. 

 Thus far, the elk have held their own 

 against these combined assaults; but they 

 cannot always do so. The hunters invari- 

 ably seek the largest bulls for their game, 

 in order to get the finest heads. This means 

 that the elk in the park must dwindle away 

 rapidly, in size. It also means that at the 

 rate at which the killing has been going on, 

 the breeding grounds in the Park could 

 not long meet the heavy draughts. 



In the case of domestic animals we se- 

 lect the largest, strongest and best animals, 

 for breeders. Thus we are enabled to im- 

 prove our horses and cattle, from year to 

 year. Suppose we killed the largest and 

 strongest of these, as fast as they became 

 3 or 4 years old, as we are doing with the 

 elk. What would be the condition of the 

 domestic animals, in 10 or 20 years? 



I, in common with most members of the 

 L. A. S., and all other true sportsmen and 

 naturalists, want to see the National Park 

 made large enough so that the elk in it may 

 live to be 10 or 20 years old; and that many 

 of them may die from natural causes. In- 

 stead of allowing the race to dwindle down, 

 we want to see them, on account of being 

 protected from the raids of hunters and 

 Indians, allowed to grow larger and 

 stronger than ever. If the Park boundaries 

 are extended, as we have asked the Gov- 

 ernment to extend them, then we may hope 

 that this result will be brought about. Let 

 the bands of elk within the Park increase 

 to 100,000 if possible. Meantime, there will 

 always be small bands breaking away and 

 roaming through the mountains, in various 

 directions,' enough to furnish good sport for 

 all the hunters. If there be not enough of 

 these to enable the game hogs to slaughter 

 as they would like to slaughter, and to en- 

 able the Indians to provide each year's 

 supply of buckskin, so much the better. 



Fortunately, the Government will pay 

 the settlers in Jackson's Hole for their 

 homes, to the full value thereof, if it ever 

 takes possession of them. 



True, it is a hardship to any man to be 

 told he must move off his farm and allow 

 it to be turned back into a wilderness. 

 Such hardships are. however, inflicted on 

 people, somewhere, every day and in all 



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