FISHERIES., GAME AND FORESTS. 377 



Another claim for damages was made by William Seward Webb, of New York 

 city, who owned about 120,000 acres of forest land situated on waters tributary to 

 the Beaver River. As this claim was taken into consideration in determining the 

 price paid by the State for these lands, we submit a digest of the evidence in the 

 case as given before the Court of Claims; 



statement of Claim and Ijficf Abstract of Evidence. 



PREFACE. 



The trial of the claim of the undersigned against the State of New York, in the Board of Claims, 

 was to recover damages to the amount stated in the claim of $184,350.60. The claim has been so 

 thoroughly and completely substantiated by evidence that the damages proven are about twice as 

 large as the amount claimed. At the time of the filing of the claim there was no proper appreciation 

 of its extent and magnitude on the part of the claimant. Its greater extent and magnitude over the 

 amount claimed, however, developed in the course of the trial ; and in case the claim is not settled, 

 and the litigation is continued through the Courts, the amount of the damages demanded will, of 

 course, be sought by the usual amendments to be made to conform to the proof. 



The field of investigation covered a wide region of subject matter, including such matters as 

 lumbering with all its details, log driving, improving rivers preparatory to log floating, estimating the 

 yield of timber lands, building dams and mills, marketing of lumber, also the business of harvesting 

 pulp wood and converting it into paper; railroads and their construction, freight rates, and that 

 department of medicine which treats of the propagation and spread of miasmatic poisonings, including 

 also the subject of Adirondack lands for park purposes. Every eflFort was made by the claimant to 

 produce witnesses who are the very best authorities on the particular subject upon which they were 

 called to testify. 



The trial of the claim on the part of the claimant occupied over a week, and the evidence covers 

 I>547 pages of type-writing besides very many exhibits, the examination of all which would be very 

 voluminous, and to save the trouble of such detailed examination, the annexed abstract of evidence is 

 submitted. 



The following is a list of the witnesses who testified on behalf of the claimant : David C. Wood, 

 William R. Smith, George T. Crawford, Chandler E. Phelps, George C. Sherman, James Dunbar, 

 Hon. M. \V. Van Amber, Hiram Burke, James A. Koonz, A. J. Muncey, John McFarland. Madore 

 Lamore, William Gibbons, Edward B. Sterling, Hon. Wesley Barnes, Zebediah Dupuy, Hon. G. H. 

 P. Gould, Thomas A. Galvin, Hon. James P. Lewis, Dr. James H. Tamlin, Augustus Kessler, Dr. 

 Frederick Townsend, Herbert D. Carter, Dr. P. N. Von Zierolshofen, William Briggs, William P. 

 Goodelle, James Cosgrove, Hon. Lansing Hotaling, William McEchron, Herschel Roberts, Julius 

 Breckwaldt, Hon. T. M. Reed, Franklin E. Robinson, Dr. Florence Donohue, Erastus Darling, Dr. 

 J. W. Candee, William Harris, E. M. Burns, Charles Highby, Dr. Elmer D. Burch, Samuel O. Boul- 

 livant, Paul Smith. 



Dated July 10, 1895. 



WILLIAM SEWARD WEBB, 

 By Edward M. Burns, Manager. 



