1 66 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



on the ice, they can browse on the white cedar and other conifers that in many places 

 grow in dense, unbroken masses along the shore, close to and overhanging the water's 

 edge. They crop this foliage clean as high as they can reach. On some Adirondack 

 lakes there is a well-defined horizontal line on the tree-growth along the shore, above 

 which the foliage is thick and green, while below it there is not a vestige of leaf or 

 twig on the bare, dead branches and naked tree trunks. This line of demarkation is 

 so true and level that it is generally mistaken for a high-water mark or line of erosion 

 caused by moving ice ; but it was made by deer in winter when feeding along the 

 shore and walking on the level ice. Little Moose, Bug, and Queer Lakes, in Herkimer 

 county, especially the latter, are well worth visiting by any who might be interested 

 in studying this peculiar evidence of their work. 



The best and most abundant feed is found in forests that have been lumbered, that 

 is, forests from which the larger spruce and pine trees have been removed years ago. 

 These lumbering operations not only left the land well shaded by the remaining hard- 

 woods and small evergreens, but promoted a certain growth of underbrush, which is 

 generally lacking in our primeval forests. This underbrush, together with the grasses 

 and shrubs that spring up along the old abandoned log-roads, furnish an abundance of 

 nutritious food. Lands, also, that have been burned over seem to be a favorite feed- 

 ing place after a lapse of a few years, the fire having stimulated a new growth of 

 grasses, shrubs, bushes, and briers, that make attractive pasture. The reappearance of 

 the deer on these burned and lumbered tracts, and their rapidly increasing numbers in 

 these localities has been a matter of wonderment and frequent remark by the residents 

 during the past few years. 



While in their native haunts the deer are obliged to content themselves with such 

 food as the forest affords; but in the Catskill region, where they have become embold- 

 ened by the protection afforded by the law, they frequently venture into the farming 

 districts where they vary their diet by incursions into the grain fields and garden 

 patches of the farmers. Letters have been received by this Department from irate 

 citizens in Greene and Delaware counties protesting against the action of the State in 

 turning deer loose in that region to the detriment of their crops ; and one man 

 forwarded a bill for $44.00 for cabbages and other garden truck eaten by the "King's 

 deer." 



The herd in the State Breeding Park at Slide Mountain, Ulster county, soon 

 browsed the woods in that large enclosure so completely that food had to be purchased 

 for them. They were then fed on oats, hay, potatoes, Indian meal, and ground feed. 

 Although they were given all they would eat they did not attain their normal size and 

 weight. A few which escaped were seen occasionally in the neighborhood, when the 

 better condition and the greater size of these which ran at large was plainly apparent. 



