70 Deer and Antelope of North America 



the moose so much more eagerly than he followed 

 the deer that the conditions were reversed and the 

 moose was killed out. The moose thus vanished 

 entirely from the Adirondacks, and almost entirely 

 from Maine ; but the excellent game laws of the 

 latter state, and the honesty and efficiency with 

 which they have been executed during the last 

 twenty years, has resulted in an increase of moose 

 during that time. During the same period the 

 whitetail deer has increased to an even greater 

 extent. It is doubtless now more plentiful in New 

 York and New England than it was a quarter of 

 a century ago. Stragglers are found in Connecti- 

 cut, and, what is still more extraordinary, even 

 occasionally come into wild parts of densely popu- 

 lated little Rhode Island, — my authority for the 

 last statement being Mr. C. Grant La Farge. Of 

 all our wild game, the whitetail responds most 

 quickly to the efforts for its protection, and ex- 

 cept the wapiti, it thrives best in semi-domes- 

 tication ; in consequence, it has proved easy to 

 preserve it, even in such places as Cape Cod in 

 Massachusetts and Long Island in New York ; 

 while it has increased greatly in Vermont, New 

 Hampshire, and Maine, and has more than held 

 its own in the Adirondacks. Mr. James R. Shef- 

 field, of New York City, in the summer of 1899, 

 spent several weeks on a fishing trip through 

 northern Maine. He kept count of the moose 



