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Private Game Preserves. 
These interesting paragraphs are taken from 
Dr. T. S. Palmer’s recent paper on “Private 
Game Preserves and Their Future in the United 
States,” and are of great interest to all: 
Historical. 
The game preserve in the form of a deer park 
as an adjunct to a private estate dates back to 
the earliest colonial days. One of the first, if 
not the first, in America was located in Mary¬ 
land, on the eastern side of Chesapeake Bay, 
near its head. Augustine Hermann, a cartog¬ 
rapher, born at Prague, Bohemia, in 1608, came 
to Maryland in 1659 and surveyed and mapped 
the province, a service for which he received a 
grant of land in Cecil county. Here he founded 
in 1661 the manor of Bohemia, and among other 
attractions added “a large deer park, the walls 
of which are still standing.”* In the descrip¬ 
tions of colonial estates, particular’y those in 
Maryland and Virginia, frequent references may 
be found to deer parks. 
In 1753 Benjamin Tasker, the governor of 
♦Wilson, T. G., A Maryland Manor, p. 15, 1890. 
Maryland, on retiring from office, laid out his 
country seat Belair, near Collington, Prince 
George county, in true manorial style, and in¬ 
cluded in the improvements a park for deer. 
Another celebrated estate in Maryland was 
that of Harewood, on Gunpowder River, near 
Baltimore, which about the year 1830 included 
a deer park of some 300 acres, where “200 deer 
may often be seen at a single view.”f Here ex¬ 
periments were made in introducing pheasants, 
European quail and red-legged partridges, but 
proved unsuccessful, owing chiefly to depreda¬ 
tions of poachers and natural enemies. Thirty 
years later, about 1858-59, was established the 
deer park of Judge J. D. Caton, near Ottawa, 
111 . This park, which originally comprised but 
forty acres and was afterward increased to 200, 
was the first of its kind in the United States. 
It was established solely for the purpose of ob¬ 
serving and studying the various kinds of big 
game in a state of captivity. Here the observa¬ 
tions were made which formed the basis of the 
owner’s well-known work on the antelope and 
deer of America. 
tTurf Register, 11. p. 130, November, 1830. 
1 he first game preserve belonging to an incor¬ 
porated association was that established by the 
Blooming Grove Association in 1871, for the pur¬ 
pose “of preserving, importing, breeding and 
propagating game animals, birds and fish, and 
of furnishing facilities to the members for hunt¬ 
ing, shooting and fishing on its grounds.” One 
of the important features was a deer park. This 
venture was followed a few years later by 
numerous other parks of various kinds, until 
they now number several hundred. 
Upland Preserves. 
In the upland preserve under private owner¬ 
ship may be found one of the most important 
factors in the maintenance of the future supply 
of game and game birds. Nearly all such pre¬ 
serves are maintained for the propagation of 
deer, quail, grouse or pheasants. They vary 
widely in area, character and purpose and em¬ 
brace some of the largest game refuges in the 
country. Some of the preserves in North Caro¬ 
lina cover from 15,000 to 30,000 acres, several 
in South Carolina exceed 60,000 acres in extent, 
while the Megantic Club’s preserve, on the boun¬ 
dary between Quebec and Maine, comprises 
DELTA OF THE UPPER YELLOWSTONE RIVER, WHERE SEVENTEEN MOOSE WERE SEEN. 
From a photograph by George Shiras, 3d. 
