GAME PRESERVES, or GAME PARKS, are large reservations of land, usually includ ing mountain and forest, set aside by the gov ernment or individuals, for the propagation and preservation of game. Game preserves have been well known in Great Britain and on the Continent for upward of five centuries. Henry VIII established a royal deer park near Hamp ton Palace in 1526, and the Duke of Suther land at the present day owns the largest game preserve in the world. Game preservation in the United States first attracted attention just prior to the Civil War and later when the rapidly increasing settlement of the States threatened the extinction of all kinds of wild game.
The United States government took up the question of game preservation almost as soon as the individual, and the establishment of the Yellowstone National Park in the Rocky Moun tains and the Yosemite National Park in Cali fornia had as much to do with the protection of big game as in the preservation of forests.
In these two reservations the government ranges have endeavored topreserve and protect such large game as the buffalo, elk and moose. The other nine national parks nearly all in clude reservations for the protection and preservation of wild animals, including birds. In 1902, President Roosevelt, himself a hunter of big game, declared no less than 12 new na tional forest reserves which, while largely im portant to forestry, will greatly assist in the protection of big game. These new reserves had a total area of 14,276,476 acres. Since that time many important additions have been made to the list of reservations, some of which fol low: Acres San Isabel. Colorado 77,980 Santa Rita. Arizona 337,300 Niobrara, Nebraska 123.779 Dismal River. Nebraska 8S,123 Santa Catalina Arizona 133,320 • Mount Graham Arizona 118,600 , Lincoln, New Mexico 500,000 Chiricahua. Anemia 169,600 Madison, Montana 736,000 Little Belt Mountains, Montana 501,000 Alexander Archipelago. Alaska 4,306,240 Absaroka, Montana 1,311,600 Grand Canyon, .Arizona 1,402.930 Atognak Forest, Alaska 312.000 Mount Olympus, 608,640 Montana National Bison 18,521 Munkunyuweap, Utah 15,840 Colorado National Monument, Colorado 13,883 Billy Meadows Pasture, Oregon 2,560 N Mobrara Reservation, ebraaka 1.250 There are also numerous State preserves. Wyoming has five, including Teton State Pre serve of 576,000 acres; Pennsylvania five, of a total of 1,600 acres; Montana has the Snow Creek Game Preserve of 57,600 acres; and New York State has the famous Adirondack State Park.
Of private game parks in the United States, the first of record was that of Judge J. D. Caton of Ottawa, Ill., the author of 'Deer and Antelope in the United States.' This he estab lished in 1860, for sport and study, bringing to gether on his large estate many varieties of game animals native to America. In 1889, Austin Corbin enclosed the area known as tilue Moun tain Forest, situated near Newport, N. H. It contains over 36,000 acres and is surrounded by a wire fence, eight feet high, forming an ob long tract 12 by 5 miles, and which is crossed by a mountain range, the peaks of which are 3,000 feet high. Here are miles of wooded
slopes, dense forests and broad meadows, giv ing food and shelter to all kinds of game ani mals, from the buffalo, elk and moose to the smaller species. The experiment has been most successful, nearly all of the animals thriving and increasing rapidly in numbers. In 1870, F. S. Giles laid out the Grove Park reservation, containing 17,000 acres and this experiment was followed by Dr. W. Seward Webb with a preserve of 9,000 acres at Nebasane, N. Y., in the Adirondacks, Northern New York, and another preserve at Shelburne, Vt. The Litch field Park at Tupper Lake, N. Y., in the Adirondacks, was established in 1893, with 9,000 acres, and in 1900 hundreds of herds of large game were roaming the mountain forests within this tract. In the same region the Adirondack Timber Company has a park of over 30,000 acres, well stocked with animals. George W. Vanderbilt at his Carolina estate of Biltmore has 80,000 acres, 6,000 acres of which are en closed and well stocked with game. A small army of men are engaged here as keepers. In many of the smaller parks particular attention has been paid to game birds, such as the Eng lish pheasant, prairie chicken and wild turkey. A lover of birds imported large numbers of Japanese pheasants for his preserve in Oregon in 1893 the experiment proving a great success. E. C. Benedict of Greenwich, Conn., has estab lished extensive fish preserves in Long Island Sound, which are the largest and most success ful of their kind in this country. Near Platts burg, N. Y., Paul Smith owns an immense pre serve around Saint Regis Lake of 40,000 acres. Large numbers of elk were brought here from the West in 1903. William C. Whitney of New York has been active in stocking the Adirondack region with big game, and in conjunction with Dr. F. E. Kendall of Saranac Lake, has re stocked the forests with elk and deer. At Delaware Water Gap, Pa., on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River, Barclay Warburton of Philadelphia established in 1902 an extensive deer park, which is one of the most successful in that section of the country. Dr. R. V. Pierce bought about 20 square miles for a preserve at Saint Vincent Island, which was established in 1909 for the preservation of waterfowl. Marsh Island, La., was purchased by Mrs. Russell Sage in 1912, and set aside as a refuge for water fowl. George Vanderbilt's Biltmore estate in North Carolina has been largely donated to the United States government as a game preserve.
In Canada there are several large game pre serves, prominent among which is the Caughna waga reservation on the Maquacippi River. The Roberval Club, which has a membership of 300 including both American and Canadian, owns a big game preserve containing 500 square miles, located in the Laurentian Mountains. Henri Menier occupies as a game park the whole of Anticosti Island, in the Gulf of Saint Law rence.