FOREST AND STREAM 
73 
Glimpses of 
e Possible to the Travele 
ffpli 
|f|| 
il 
1 
H 
1 
mR|§ 
wiiii 
WILD LIFE PROTECTION 
MAGNIFICENT WORK BEING DONE BY THE 
GOVERNMENT AND FRIENDLY SOCIETIES 
By G. B. G. 
C OMPARATIVELY few people have 
any adequate conception of the great 
educational work now being done by 
the national parks and monuments in the 
United States. The passage of time has 
reduced to comparatively small proportions 
the wild territory that may still be occupied 
by large wild animals, or large wild birds, 
and these, where found, are perpetually in 
fear of man, on the watch and likely to 
take flight before they are seen. Besides 
this, most people are not sufficiently ob¬ 
servant to notice bird or animal, even if in 
plain sight, unless it is large and conspicu¬ 
ous. This is true of persons who have had 
hunting practice. Many a hunter has spent 
much time carefully studying some wide 
area of country, vainly trying to discover 
game, and then suddenly has become aware 
of an animal, now plainly seen, and still un¬ 
alarmed, which his eye has more than once 
passed over unrecognized. 
To the traveler wholly unaccustomed to 
wild life most of the national parks of the 
west offer opportunities to see with com¬ 
fort, and in a short space of time, majestic 
scenery—astonishing natural beauty on a 
scale both large and small—and glimpses 
of wild life which he could never have ex¬ 
cept in such carefully protected reserva¬ 
tions, where the animals, wild and living 
their natural life, are yet protected from 
the arch enemy man, and no longer flee 
from him. 
N ’ OT very long ago in one of our na¬ 
tional parks we came in contact with 
a large party of eastern folk, travel¬ 
ing on horseback, and living in teifts. It 
was the first glimpse of the wild country 
for some of them; the first time they had 
been astride a horse. Others were older 
hands, and those whose experience was 
greatest took the keenest delight in this 
unaccustomed life. Among the group were 
a few who knew something about nature, 
about the habits of birds and animals, and 
about the plants that grew in the valleys 
or clothed the hillsides, or sheltered them¬ 
selves beneath the snow banks on tall moun¬ 
tain peaks. These naturalists were con¬ 
stantly surrounded by others of their fel¬ 
lows who were begging information from 
them and asking a multitude of questions, 
which the lecturers sometimes had difficulty 
in answering. The names of .birds, their 
habits, where they nested, where they 
lived in summer, went in winter, and a 
thousand other points were inquired about, 
questions which showed the interest that 
people feel in these natural objects and 
their desire for further knowledge about 
them. 
How natural all this is when we appre¬ 
ciate the enormous interest that attaches 
to any subject in natural history and real¬ 
ize that even a slight investigation in any 
of its branches vastly broadens the range 
of one’s pleasures, and in the most whole¬ 
some and stimulating way. One thing 
leads to another, and it would be easy to 
point one’s finger at certain men who stand 
to-day in the very front rank of American 
science, who perhaps began their work in 
one branch, became eminent in that, and 
then transferred their labors to another 
branch, and later perhaps even to a third, 
achieving fame in all three. 
It is gratifying to think that all over the 
country are men and groups of men who 
are trying to forward investigations into 
nature and her works and to supply the 
information that so many people are inter¬ 
ested in. It is only a few years since the 
first national bird reservations were set 
aside, and to-day there are about seventy 
of these, with a prospect of many more. 
They are scattered from Alaska to South¬ 
ern California, and from the Great Lakes 
to Florida, and for the most part efficiently 
protected, so that the birds that breed on 
them are free from molestation by man 
while on the reservations. 
O UTSIDE of the national parks, some 
of which are very satisfactorily 
stocked with native wild animals of 
all sorts, there are five or six game re¬ 
serves, and besides that there is not a little 
wild life on some of the national monu¬ 
ments. On the Montana bison range, in 
western Montana, there is a herd of 165 
Buffalo, together with 65 elk and 26 ante¬ 
lope. This reservation was stocked in part 
by private means, for it was, we believe, 
the Bison Society that furnished the buffalo, 
and the Boone and Crockett Club that 
sent the antelope, which were later added 
to by the gift of three animals from a citi¬ 
zen of Deer Lodge, Montana. 
In the Wind Cave National Game Pre¬ 
serve, South Dakota, there are 28 buffalo. 
