594 
FOREST AND STREAM 
October, 1918 
FOREST and STREAM 
FORTY - SEVENTHjYEAR 
FOUNDERS OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETY 
GOVERNING BOARD : 
GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL, New York, N. Y. 
CARL E. AKELEY, American Museum of Natural History, New York 
TRANE S. DAGGETT, Museum of Science, Los Angeles, Cal, 
EDMUND HELLER, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. 
0. HART MERRIAM, Biological Survey, Washington, D. C. 
WILFRED H. OSGOOD, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Ill. 
JOHN M. PHILLIPS, Pennsylvania Game Commission, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
CHARLES SHELDON, Washington, D. C. 
GEORGE SHIRAS, 3rd, Washington, D. C. 
WILLIAM BRUETTE, Editor 
TOM WOOD, Manager 
Nine East Fortieth Street, New York City 
THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL WILL BE TO 
studiously promote a healthful interest in outdoor recrea¬ 
tion, and a refined taste for natural objects. Aug. 14, 1873 
AMERICAN RIFLE SHOOTING 
HE narrative on another page of just how, when and 
by whom, the American soldier was given that im¬ 
petus as a rifle shot which to-day makes him, man for 
man, the superior of any fighting force in the world, ife 
more than a merely interesting bit of reminiscence. 
It is really an historical document, contributing an im¬ 
portant chapter to the story of the present great struggle. 
It is with particular pride that Forest and Stream tells 
the story, not alone for the part which this journal took 
in bringing about this important result, but in the further 
fact that the tale is told at first hand and for the first 
time by a veteran newspaper man, under whose profes¬ 
sional eye the events spoken of took place. Mr. Jonas 
E. Whitley, as the shooting editor of Forest and Stream 
during the seventies, was an almost daily visitor to 
Creedmoor, and the other ranges where these initial trials 
took place. He went over to Dollymount. where the 
Irish team was beaten on its home range, and at Wimble¬ 
don, he saw the Yankee shots more than hold their own 
with the veterans of Great Britain and her colonies. 
The story, however, is significant only as placing in 
a strong light the work of Gen. George W. Wingate. It 
was he and he alone who forsaw the importance of cut¬ 
ting out the bluff which had always been such a large 
part of American marksmanship, and of getting down 
to brass tacks, in the shape of systematic, intelligent 
practice before targets of various sorts, and, instead of 
the psuedo-soldiery which we had about us, having a 
competent body of real marksmen. 
To-day cables from the Marne are telling what we 
hope may be the last chapter of this Wingate work. There 
is nothing noble in warfare. It is brutality, first, last 
and always, but it is apparently necessary as yet. 
But our friend Wingate, with this one great achieve¬ 
ment to his personal credit is not yet an idler. Far from 
it. He has started on an even greater achievement. A 
plan for a lasting world peace, instead of a world-wide 
slaughter. He is rounding up the school boys of the 
land, and from puny striplings is turning out self-reliant, 
sturdy young scout rangers. The great Public School 
Athletic League, already in New York City alone a half 
million strong, is extending over the land, and the young¬ 
sters already have caught the enthusiasm of their veterar. 
leader. The next generation will have even greatei 
cause than we to give credit to the foresight, the energy, 
and the long range judgment of George W. Wingate. 
ARIZONA BIG GAME REFUGES 
HE sentiment for game protection, which is 
growing all over the country, is increasing in 
the southwest in a most gratifying way. It will be 
remembered that five years ago a herd of elk from 
the Yellowstone Park was placed in the Sitgreaves 
Forest on the understanding among the local people, 
especially the cattle men, that they should be protect¬ 
ed. This herd of elk has increased to near 200 head. 
Within the last year strong efforts have been made 
by the authorities of Arizona, largely directed by G. 
M. Willard, the State Game Warden, to establish a 
number of game refuges in different parts of the 
state, and public sentiment has been so receptive of 
these efforts that four refuges have been so estab¬ 
lished. These range in size from the Blue Ridge 
Refuge, which contains upwards of one thousand 
square miles to the Mt. Graham Refuge, the smallest 0 
of the four, of probably one-fifth that area. The 
precise area of none is known, for they have not yet 
been surveyed. 
These refuges are all well adapted to deer, turkeys, 
mountain sheep and bear, and at least two of them, 
the Blue Ridge and the Mt. Graham, are suited to 1 
elk, since country between 10,000 and 11,000 feet in alti¬ 
tude is found in them. It was within the boundaries of 
the present Blue Ridge Refuge that the native elk of 
Arizona, a species distinct from all other elk, made their 
last stand and were exterminated twenty-nine or thirty 
years ago. Our only knowledge of them comes from a 
study of the horns and fragments of horns and a very 
few specimens of heads that have been preserved. 
The Arizona Game Department last spring ob¬ 
tained from the Yellowstone herd sixty elk and lib¬ 
erated twenty-two head in the Mt. Graham Refuge, 
and the remainder in the Blue Ridge Refuge. There 
seems every reason to hope that the little herds here 
started may be as successful as those placed in the 
Sitgreaves Forest. 
His success in inducing the Arizona Legislature to 
set aside these game refuges reflects great credit on 
Mr. Willard, who was the moving spirit in the whole 
matter. He had the backing of Gov. Hunt, and of 
certain local interests, and had behind him also the 
sympathy of a very large number of people outside 
the State of Arizona. But, after all, he is the man 
who did the work and to him belongs the credit for 
what has been done. He worked hard, for he real¬ 
ized that to re-establish game once exterminated is 
slow and difficult business, and that the cheaper and 
wiser way is to save an existing stock and permit it 
to increase. 
The protection of small herds of wild animals in 
areas suited to them and sufficiently free from civil¬ 
ized occupancy to allow the animals to increase, is a 
long step in the direction of re-stocking wider areas, 
from which the short-sighted first settlers have ex¬ 
terminated the game. In regions already barren new 
herds will be established, as in the case of these elk. 
Work such as this done by Mr. Willard will count 
enormously for his state and cannot fail to bring him 
from all over the country a high degree of apprecia¬ 
tion from sportsmen and naturalists, as well as the 
gratitude of the rising generation of Arizonians. 
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