PENNSYLVANIA GAME NEWS 
 
1Th\ 
 
OF GAME MANA 
 
The Emperor Kahn spent about three 
months each year in a hunting camp using 
about ten thousand tents for members of his 
party and for the hawks and their keepers. 
He was carried to camp on four elephants in 
a fine howdah made of beaten gold and em- 
bellished with lion skins. 
 
Some Greek leaders prohibited the taking of game, not to con- 
serve it, but because it was feared that if they were interested in 
the chase, the mechanical arts would be neglected. Other Greek 
leaders encouraged hunting because they felt that the training 
thus received would be valuable in times of war. 
Perhaps the most ancient reference to the payment of a bounty 
on noxious birds and animals is by the Egyptians where wheat or 
similar commodities were given as bounty instead of money. The 
Greeks and Romans had their system. Reference is made in old 
European history to the payment of bounties. It has been reported 
that Henry the VIII provided for a bounty on crows and rooks. 
The respective landowners were required to pay the bill. Queen 
Elizabeth authorized the wardens of churches to levy taxes on 
land and with money secured in this way, bounties were paid on 
these birds as well as many others. 
The plan of selecting suitable areas and restricting their use 
to a few privileged hunters goes back into the remote past and 
apparently grew by slow degrees into the idea of setting aside 
areas for the benefit of game, which would correspond to our 
game refuges of more modern times. 
In order to find a well rounded program of game management 
it is necessary to go back to the early history of the Mongol Em- 
pire. Marco Polo more than six centuries ago in writing of his 
journies across Asia, describes the program put in effect by the 
imperialistic Mongol Genghis Khan, who was considered by many 
historians as the greatest conquerer of all times. Apparently the 
Great Khan knew and appreciated the economic value of wildlife. 
He formulated and imposed upon his subjects the most drastic 
game laws ever known. He regulated seasons; bag limits were re- 
stricted as to number and sex and severe penalties were meted 
out to violators of his orders. 
The Emperor Khan spent about three months each year in a 
hunting camp at Cachar Modun, using approximately 10,000 tents 
for members of his party and for the hawks and their keepers 
used in connection with the hunt. The Emperor was carried to 
his camp on four elephants in a fine chamber made of timber and 
lined inside with plates of beaten gold, and on the outside with 
lions skins. 
Marco Polo, in describing the Khans hunting camp, states, 
"There is another thing I should mention; to wit, that for 20 
 
days' journey round the spot nobody is allowed, be he who he 
may, to keep hawks or hounds, though anywhere else whosoever 
list may keep them. And furthermore throughout all the Emper- 
or's territories, nobody however audacious dares to hunt any of 
these four animals, to wit, hare, stag, buck, and roe, from the 
month of March to the month of October. Anybody who should 
do so would rue it bitterly. But those people are so obedient to 
their Lord's command, that even if a man were to find one of 
those animals asleep by the roadside he would not touch it for 
the world! And thus the game multiplies at such a rate that the 
whole country swarms with it, and the Emperor gets as much as 
he could desire. Beyond the term I have mentioned, however, to 
wit that from March to October, everybody may take these ani- 
mals as he list." 
Marco Polo also recounts that in Cathay on the Khan's pre- 
serves he found great game food patches planted to millet and 
other grains suitable as food for partridges, quail and other birds. 
Strict orders were in existence prohibiting the reaping of the seed 
in order that the birds would not be deprived of nourishment. 
There was also practiced cover control and winter feeding of 
game. 
In America 
The history of game management in America, until a compara- 
tively recent date is mostly one of the controls of hunting, and of 
attempts at the control of predatory animals and birds. Game 
protection in the United States has been gradually developed dur- 
ing a period of about 300 years and has been marked by an im- 
mense volume of legislation. In no country in the world have 
laws been passed in such numbers or amended so frequently. Even 
as early as the American Revolution, 12 of the 13 original colonies 
had provided for closed seasons on some species of animals or 
birds, while some colonies had also prohibited the taking of game 
by certain devices and methods, and also prohibited the export 
and sale of deerskins. 
Probably the first game law passed in what is now the State 
of Pennsylvania was in 1721, more than 200 years ago. It was 
enacted by Sir William Keith, Baronet, Governor of the Province 
(Continued on page 14) 
 
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