FOREST^STREAM 
FORTY-EIGHTH YEAR 
FOUNDERS OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETY 
GOVERNING BOARD: 
GEORGE BIRD GRINITEIE, New York, N. Y. 
CARL E. AKELEY, American Museum of Natural History, New York. 
FRANK S. DAGGETT, Museum of Science, Los Angeles, Cal. 
EDMUND HELLER, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. 
C. KART MERRIAM. Biological Survey, Washington, D. C. 
WILFRED H. OSGOOD, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, 111. 
JOHN M. PHILLIPS, Pennsylvania Game Commission, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
CHARLES SHELDON, Washington, D. C. 
GEORGE SHIRAS, 3rd, Washington, D. C. 
WIIilAM BRUETTE, Editor 
JOHN P. HOLMAN, Associate Editor 
TOM WOOD, Manager 
Nino East Fortieth Street, New York City 
THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL WILL BE TO 
studiously promote a healthful interest in outdoor rec- 
reation, and a refined taste for natural objects. 
August 14, 1878. 
GAME REFUGES IN OUR FORESTS 
"MOT many years after the first forest reserves 
were set aside, and while the question of their 
usefulness was still under debate, a group of big 
game hunters urged that the United States should 
assume not alone the ownership and protection of 
the forests, but also of the game found in the forests. 
With various modifications the subject has since 
been much discussed and several bills have been 
introduced in Congress to establish in the National 
forests game refuges where the wild animals shall 
be wholly free from molestation. The subject is 
again brought up by a bill introduced in the Senate 
by Mr. Nelson to establish game sanctuaries in na- 
tional forests. 
The bill provides that the President of the United 
States, on recommendation of the Secretary of Agri- 
culture with the approval of the Governors of the 
states in which the several national forests are sit- 
uated, may establish by proclamation certain speci- 
fied areas, as game sanctuaries or refuges. The 
lands so set aside shall not cease to be parts of the 
National forests and the Secretary of Agriculture is 
not forbidden to allow grazing on these areas, so 
far as such grazing “may be consistent with the 
purposes for which such game sanctuaries or ref- 
uges are authorized to be established.” Killing, 
capturing, pursuing, poisoning and trapping wild 
animals, birds or fish are forbidden. The Secretary 
of Agriculture shall ca.rry this Act into effect and 
shall make regulations under which legal fishing and 
destruction of predatory animals may be carried on. 
He shall cause the boundaries of such refuges to be 
marked and see that the rules and regulations are 
carried out. The purpose of the Act is to provide 
breeding places, under natural conditions, for large 
wild animals such a deer, elk and mountain sheep, 
which may spread over adjacent territory to be 
hunted in accordance with state laws; to establish 
refuges of medium size rather than large preserves, 
and. whenever possible, to establish chains of sanc- 
tuaries which may restore wild animals to interven-' 
ing territory. 
The purpose of this bill is excellent, and all who 
are interested in the preservation of our wild species 
will hope for its enactment. It is somewhat loosely 
draAvn and requires some amendment; especially 
the insertion of a provision which shall authorize 
the appointment by the Secretary of Agriculture of 
employees of the Forest Service to enforce the pro- 
visions of the Act. Such wardens should have the 
power to arrest any persons violating the provisions 
of the bill, or the regulations established under it, 
and to bring such persons before any United States 
court for trial. The Secretary should be authorized 
to suggest to the Governors of the states in which 
the game refuges or sanctuaries may be established 
the appointment of the wardens of the Forest Serv- 
ice to act as game wardens of their respective states 
to serve without pay. 
Big game hunters will do well to secure copies of 
this bill — S. 2182 — and study its provisions with a 
view to suggesting amendments which may make 
it m.ore effective. 
Sportsmen have waited long for the enactment of 
a bill such as this, and are looking forward to the 
time when it shall become law. For Wenty or 
twenty-five years men have been urging that our 
national forests should in part be utilized for such 
a purpose and some day Congress will act. May that 
time come soon. 
SHOOTING ACCIDENTS 
P VERY year, during the hunting season a num- 
ber of fatalities occur in the woods. The lists 
that come in are full of pathos. A son shot his 
father, a nephew his uncle, a young man killed his 
best friend. In most cases the wounding or homicide 
was caused by carelessness. Under other conditions 
such an occurrence W'ould be termed criminal care- 
lessness, and might mean a term of imprisonment. 
These cases, however, are usually defined by the 
coroners’ juries as accidents and are passed over 
and soon forgotten by all except the unfortunate 
persons who did the shooting. Inexcusable and 
wicked as these occurrences are, their number is not 
likely to be lessened by wordy condemnation of the 
carelessness which causes them. They are the re- 
sults of inexperience and lack of self-control — 
faults of youth and of defective training. The les- 
sons of life are to be learned by each one of us only 
in life’s hard school. The father cannot pass on 
to his son the experience that the years have taught 
him ; he can only advise. 
But the son is likely to remember and to profit by 
the hard knocks that he himself receives. No man 
who goes hunting contemplates the possibility of 
shooting a man or of himself being shot, but the 
apparent nearness of game seems to drive out of 
the hunters’ mind every thought except that of se- 
curing the quarry. So he shoots at he knows not 
what and too often with the saddest results. 
It is the duty of every experienced man who has 
to do with young persons going into the woods for 
deer, to talk to each of them about the use of his 
gun and to impress on each the possibilities of 
danger which lurk within the weapon, and the im- 
portance of keeping this danger in mind all the time. 
If the experienced hunter would strive harder to 
make the inexperienced hunter realize that in care- 
less hands the gun is a constant source of danger, the 
number of such accidents might be greatly lessened. 
