PART III 

 NATURAL HISTORY— ANIMALS. 



Champlain, and the early explorers of the environs of Lake 

 Champlain, allude to the abundance and variety of the game and 

 wild animals found in that region. The reminiscences of the 

 living, recall the prevalence, in vast numbers of these animals, 

 at their first settlement of the county. Fearful legends are still 

 rife of exposures ©f the original settlers, and their terrific encoun- 

 ters with the panther, the bear and wolf. 



The moose is now occasionally discoyered in the recesses of the 

 interior wilderness. The panther and wolf still prowl in these 

 wilds, but rarely, and by solitary individuals. The small black 

 bear exists in small numbers among the fastnesses of the 

 Adirondacs, but are seldom seen in the more inhabited lections of 

 the county.* The bear, wolf and-fox, in the early occupaticn of 

 the county, committed the most destructive depredations upon 

 the flocks of the pioneers. They literally infested and occupied 

 the forest, and by their great prevalence seriously retarded and 

 embarrassed the introduction of sheep. The howling of wolvcj 

 around the solitary cabins of the settlers, is described as having 

 been most appalling. In the language of an aged pioneer, f ^' th« 

 deer, fii"ty years ago, were more abundant in our fields tha;i sheep,* 

 Venison was then the cheapest food of the settler, and at dilTerent 

 periods, their almost exclusive dependence. A bear cub was es^ 

 teemed as delicate and luscious as the fattest lamb. Deer still 

 abound in the interior solitudes, and are annually destroyed in 



• Two panthers and a lorg« b«ar wero taken in North Ella, about the tlint of mjr ex&mfaia- 

 ion of that town. 



t Mr. Learitt, ChceteriScld. 



