286 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW-YORK 



you have held your three last agricultural fairs ; and another Indian 

 informs me that he once killed an antlered buck within rifle shot 

 of the Cattaraugus depot, and as near as can now be ascertained, 

 the famous forester fell on the precise ground where since has 

 been reared the elegant and substantial residence of Judge Leaven- 

 worth. But what a change has been wrought since ! It has now 

 been some years since the last track of the elk has been seen in 

 the fastnesses of the Pennsylvania woods. It is said there may 

 yet a few be found on the western shore of lake Horicon, in 

 the vicinity of the Ausable river. Where next may we find 

 them ? Within six or seven years herds of hundreds, and per- 

 haps thousands, were to be found in the vicinity of St. Paul, Min- 

 nesota; but now we might as well look for them in Orange county. 

 Their western range being large prairies, skirted with narrow 

 strips and small patches of woodland, they were easily slaughtered 

 and driven off by the first settlers, and at the present time they 

 are only to be found by at least a week's journey beyond the lines 

 of civilization. The first thing that called my attention to this 

 matter as likely to afitbrd any pecuniary profit, was- a document 

 laid before the Senate by Hon. Wm. R. King, Vice-President of the 

 United States, and also president of the Senate, by Professor S. F. 

 Baird of the Smithsonian Institution, at the instance of Thomas 

 Ewbanks, Commissioner of Patents — the substance of which doc- 

 ument was a call on the government for means to procure, domes- 

 ticate and restock certain portions of land in New- York, Pensyl- 

 vania and other States, which were nearly or quite worthless for 

 agricultural purposes, but would still be a most inviting place for 

 this purpose; citing as sufficient proof of its practicability, that 

 formerly this country produced elk as naturally as it does now 

 ■Brush and White Rabbits. 



Now, as I had a pair of elk, and a quantity of this description 

 of land, at the time my attention was called to this view of the 

 subject, it readily occurred to me that I might indulge my fancy 

 in this business, with a fair prospect of a handsome remuneration. 

 I therefore set about it in a business way, by purchasing at differ- 

 ent times, three more elk, and preparing them a pasture of one 

 hundred and twenty-five acres of well-fenced woodland, in which 

 they have now been for three years, without any additional 

 expense, worth naming, beyond a visit to the park some three or 



