114 



HISTORY OF FARM 



leagues distant from here on the brink of the river (the 

 Seneca) are eight or ten fine salt fountains in a small space. 

 It is there that nets are spread for pigeons, and from seven to 

 eight hundred are often taken at a single stroke of the net. 

 Lake Tiohero (Cayuga), one of the two which joins our can- 

 ton, is fully fourteen leagues long and one or two broad. It 

 aboimds in swans and geese all winter, and in spring one sees 

 a continuous cloud of all sorts of game. Tie river which 

 rises in the lake soon divides into different channels enclosed 

 by prairies, with here and there fine attractive bays of con- 

 siderable extent, excellent places for hunting." {Jesuit 

 Relations for 16.71-72). 



Of our fine native fowl, one, the 

 turkey, has been domesticated: one, 

 the wild pigeon has been wholly exter- 

 noinated; and most of the others have 

 been hunted almost to the point of 

 extinction: game laws as at present 

 written serve merely to prolong a 

 little their slaughter. If there be any 

 hope of preserving unto future gener- 

 ations the remnant of those game birds 

 that still survive it would seem to lie 

 in the permanent reservations that are 

 being established north and south, 

 mainly by private enterprise. 



The wild pigeon was the .first of our 

 fine game birds to disappear. Its 

 social habits were its madoiog. when 

 once guns were brought to its pursuit. 

 It flew in great flocks which were 

 conspicuous and noisy, and whidi the 

 htmter could follow by eye and ear, 

 The wild passenger ^jj^ mow dowii With shot at every 



