4 
OCTOBER, 1917 
465 
ing the elk, the Yellowstone Park has pro¬ 
tected in its native home the last small 
herd of buffalo that has continued to exist 
in its original home in the United States. 
Another most interesting and valuable 
result of the protection of game in the 
Yellowstone has been the preservation from 
destruction of a moose peculiar to that re¬ 
gion. These moose once occupied a con¬ 
siderable area, but the survivors are now 
reduced to about 1,500 in the park and a 
much smaller number in the immediately 
adjacent country on the south. There are 
also within the park limits several hundred 
antelope and mountain sheep. 
With its thousands of herbivorous mam¬ 
mals, the Yellowstone contains wolves, 
mountain lions, black and grizzly bears, 
animals among the most notable and inter¬ 
esting of American large game. This park, 
with its wealth of wild life, has been a 
wonderful object lesson in game preser¬ 
vation which, as a precedent, has had a 
powerful influence in encouraging the set¬ 
ting aside of other wild life sanctuaries, 
both Federal and state. 
The interest of the visitors to the Yel¬ 
lowstone in its game animals evidences the 
strength of the attraction which wild life 
has for all. Despite the scenic beauties 
and natural wonders of this park, the 
presence of thousands of game animals in 
their native haunts is widely advertised as 
one of its most notable features. There is 
scarcely a well-informed man, woman or 
child in this country who does not know 
something of the Yellowstone bears and 
their free and easy manners. 
Glacier National Park is also a game 
sanctuary where, under government pro¬ 
tection, elk, mountain sheep and mountain 
goats add greatly to the interest excited by 
the grandeur of the scenery. 
For many years there was no Federal 
law protecting game in the Yellowstone 
until, in 1894, a^poacher wantonly killed a 
number of buffalo for trophies. This out¬ 
rage resulted in the prompt passage by 
Congress of the necessary law, since which 
time the park herds have been safer. 
It is hoped that in the near future Cali¬ 
fornia will cede jurisdiction over the na¬ 
tional parks within her boundaries and 
thus enable the Interior Department to ex¬ 
ercise complete guardianship over the 
game in Yosemite and Sequoia National 
Parks. While the variety and abundance 
of large animal life there can never equal 
that in the Yellowstone, at the same time 
the numerous black bears and deer which 
frequent the wooded lower slopes, and the 
mountain sheep peculiar to the high Sier¬ 
ras, will add the finishing touches to the 
marvels of this wonderful area of tremen¬ 
dous mountain peaks, rushing torrents and 
magnificent forests. 
An act creating the Mount McKinley 
National Park, in Alaska, has recently been 
passed by Congress. This establishes one 
of the finest and most needed game pre¬ 
serves on the continent and provides pro¬ 
tection for a large number of mountain 
sheep, moose, and caribou in one of the 
greatest game districts the world. The 
government railroad which is being built 
from the coast to the interior of Alaska 
passes near, and unless the park had been 
created by the present Congress there was 
extreme danger that hunters for the rail¬ 
road camps would exterminate the game 
in this section. 
Considering the interest in this magnifi¬ 
cent mountain, the greatest in North 
America, the extermination of the superb 
game animals about its basal slopes and 
immediately outlying mountains would not 
only be a calamity but would discredit us 
to those who come after. It is most grati¬ 
fying to learn that local sentiment in 
Alaska is strongly favorable to the crea¬ 
tion of this splendid national park and 
game refuge, even many of the market 
hunters having expressed their approval. 
With the increase of population in Alaska, 
game conditions there are in specially crit¬ 
ical condition since the severe climate ren¬ 
ders it nearly or quite impossible to re¬ 
stock its game fields once the game is ex¬ 
terminated. 
The national monuments contain many 
game animals under state jurisdiction. The 
two most notable of these are the Olympic 
Monument in Washington, which includes 
the Olympic Mountains and a few thou¬ 
sand of the Olympic elk, the main surviv¬ 
ors of this elk which is peculiar to the 
humid forests of the Northwest coast re¬ 
gion and was once widely distributed there¬ 
in, and the Grand Canyon Monument, tak¬ 
ing in a part of the Grand Canyon of the 
Colorado and including most of the sur¬ 
viving mountain sheep of that region. 
Game is not only an asset of great value 
from its return in food and skins, but its 
recreational value in attracting people to 
the wilderness has long been recognized. 
The value of game from the latter view¬ 
point will become increasingly great as the 
country becomes more densely populated. 
A host of men and women each year go to 
the woods for varying periods for the 
purpose of renewing their mental and 
physical vigor, and to a great number of 
these the wild life is the magnet which 
draws them. It is impossible to estimate 
the tremendous return which is derived in 
this way from the presence of wild life in 
our forests. 
In this connection it is interesting to 
note the changes which have occurred in 
man’s attitude and relation to wild animals. 
In primitive times his interest was that of 
a hunter towards his prey. As he devel¬ 
oped, his whole existence for untold ages 
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