PREFACE 



T 



HE complete reports of the work of the 

 various Departments of the State are 

 often given to the Public a considerable 

 time after the date on which they were formally 

 presented to the Legislature in a preliminary form. 

 The delay is frequently beyond the power of any 

 particular Department to obviate owing to the 

 burden of work of this character to be performed 

 by the public printer. The report of the Fisheries, 

 Game and l-'orest Commission for the fiscal year 

 ending September 30, 1896, is no exception to 

 what has become almosi an established rule in this 

 respect, and the delay must explain any incongrui- 

 ties which may appear in the matter of dates. 



The report of the Commission for the year 1896 



devotes more space to the department of forestry 



than to either fisheries or game for the reason that 



the attention of the people of the State has been 



especially called to matters pertaining to our forests 



by recent constitutional provisions and by the 



active policy of Governoi Black to secure a large 



addition to the acreage of the Adirondack Park, the 



great health and pleasure resort of our people, thereby 



to foster the future water supply of our canals and 



navigable rivers and to preserve the forests which yet 



remain in something like their primitive condition, and upon 



• ' wliich the water supply materially depends. 



' The colored plates of fishes, which were such a marked 



^■- feature of our report of last year, are also a feature of the 



present report. And in addition to the fishes are presented representations in colors, 

 of our game birds, oysters, and enemies of the oyster. The colored plates were 

 made from paintings especially prepared for this report by Messrs. S. F. Denton and 

 J. L. Ridgvvay, artists eminent in this particular field. The half-tone and artotype 

 full-page illustrations are made from photographs also taken especially for this report, 



