FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 1 79 



Now the Adirondack buck is far from being the gentle, interesting creature that 

 the sympathetic public has in mind. There is a buck in the State Deer Park that 

 tried to kill its keeper, a man who had cared for it, petted it, and fed it since it was a 

 fawn. The treacherous beast charged on the keeper, threw him down, and spiked him 

 three times, driving one of his horns six inches into the man's body. The unfortunate 

 keeper who was laid up in bed for months from his wounds, would have been gored to 

 death had not a neighbor who was passing by heard his cries for help and, picking 

 up a club, drove the buck off. Three does where lost in this herd, dying from the 

 maltreatment of bucks. A few seasons ago in a private deer-park at Saranac 

 Lake, owned by Mr. Nathan Straus, of New York, a buck pushed a doe over and 

 disembowelled the defenseless animal with his horns. Similar instances of bucks 

 killing does are reported from other localities. While expressions of sympathy for the 

 fate of the tearful-eyed doe may be proper, any humane sentiment regarding a 

 buck is entirely misconceived. He is a vicious, treacherous brute that may be shot 

 without compunction whenever the law permits. 



In collecting the statistics submitted herewith, the various correspondents, repre- 

 senting every minor locality in the Adirondacks, were requested to report also on the 

 number of deer found dead in their respective districts during the previous winter. 

 The large number thus reported, none of which had been killed or wounded, is a 

 matter requiring serious consideration. Mr. Wellington Kenwill, an intelligent and 

 reliable guide who keeps a hunter's hotel at the Indian Clearing on the headwaters of 

 the South Branch of Moose River, reports ninety-three dead deer* found in that 

 particular locality. It is within a few years only that these stories of dead deer have 

 been heard. During the last two years an increased number have been reported, and 

 now information from the south part of St. Lawrence county indicates that a large 

 number died in that section during the winter of 1894—95. Various reasons and 

 theories have been advanced in explanation of this serious mortality among our largest 

 and best game. 



There seems to be a general belief among the guides and hunters that the animals 

 die of starvation ; that, owing to the severe prolonged winter, the animals were unable 

 to find a proper supply of food, or were powerless to travel through the deep snow in 

 search of browse ; that in the vicinity where these carcasses were found all the foliage 

 of the evergreens and buds of the hardwoods within reach had been entirely devoured; 

 and that the deer, under the protection of the Game Law, had increased so rapidly 

 within a few years that there was no longer a sufficient supply of food for them all 

 during the winter season. In opposition to this explanation it is argued by others that 



* See Mr. Kenwill's statement, page 229. 



