70 DIGEST OF GAME LAWS FOR 1901. 
the riiitod Stjitos protecttMl hy ;i special game statute. The Yellow- 
stone National Park, u illi an area of 3,578 .square miles, has also a 
(•()mi)rehensive law, passed in IS1>4; and, like the ScMjuoia, Yosemite, 
and (leneral (Jrant parks, in California, is trujirded ])y United States 
troops. The Indian Territor}^, 31,400 square miles in extent, almost 
as lari^i* as thi^ State of Main(^ and one of the Ixvst regions in th(^ South- 
west for small game, is protected onl}' ])y a provision piohi})iting 
persons other than Indians from destroying game, except for food, in 
the Indian c()untr3\^ The forest reserves, aggregating 46,706,529 
acres, or about 73,000 square miles, an area nearl}- equal to that of 
New England and New York combined, are subject to regulations of 
the Secretary of th(» Interior, who is authorizinl by Congr(\ss to "make 
provisions for protection against destruction by tire and depredations 
upon public forests and forest reserv^ations.'^ There is further pro- 
tection, however, in the provision of Congress that offenses concerning 
which the Federal laws are silent, when connnitted on Government 
reservations, shall receive the same punishment as that prescribed for 
like offenses ))y the laws of the State in which such reservations are 
situated. The great Territor}- of Alaska, embracing 570,000 square 
miles (more than twice the total area of Texas) is at present practically 
without protection, having but the luicleus 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 twentj^-one years; that of the Indian Territor}^ enacted 
nearh^ seven t}^ 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 sundry 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 l)ring them together in the 
present publication for greater convenience of reference. 
' Such triljal laws as exist are not enforced by the United States courts. 
