198 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



STATION, 



Port Leyden 



Prospect . 



Remsen 



Malone 



North Creek 



Riverside 



Stony Creek 



Thurman 



Caldwell 



Keeseville 



Port Henry . 



Total 



RAILROAD. 



Utica and Black River 



Ogdensburg & Lake Champlain 

 Adirondack Division, D. & H. 



Delaware & Hudson 



NUMBER. 



Brought forward, 660 

 2 



15 

 9 



3 



■ I5 1 



7 



12 



1 



1 



1 



12 



874 



As only 874 deer were shipped out of the region, the estimate of 4,900 killed 

 may seem too high. But the reason for this disparity in figures is evident to all who 

 are familiar with the facts. A very large proportion of the deer killed are slaughtered 

 by the residents and consumed by them for food, venison being a staple article of 

 diet during the ten weeks of the hunting season. The hotels and boarding-houses 

 in the Adirondacks also buy a large number of deer, while in each camp the hunters 

 subsist chiefly on venison. A large number of carcasses spoil during August and 

 September, and are thrown away. Then, again, a large share of the deer are killed 

 by persons who reside on or near the outskirts of the forest, and who carry out their 

 venison in wagons. The farming regions along the borders of the wilderness are 

 largely supplied in this way. 



A party from Glens Falls killed thirty-seven deer at the Boreas Ponds, in Township 

 Forty-four, Essex county, but none of these carcasses were shipped by rail. All of 

 them, except those eaten in camp, were taken out of the woods in wagons during 

 the latter part of the hunting season. On each of the many roads radiating from 

 the forest, in every county, wagons going out with venison may be seen daily. 

 These deer of course do not appear in the shipments by rail. 



Of the thirty-three deer killed at Meacham Lake only three were taken to the 

 railroad, and in many other localities the number shipped by rail bore an equally 

 small proportion to the number killed, the greater part being consumed in the locality, 

 or carried out by wagons, or wasted, or spoiled by warm weather. 



