2 12 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



Mr. Christopher J. Goodscll, Old Forge, Herkimer County, N. Y, {Fulton Chain 

 Guide.) — Make the game laws for the poor as well as the rich. I hope that we may be 

 allowed to hound deer for at least one month, so as to give every man the same chance 

 as the still-hunter. The season ought to open September 1st and close November 1st. 

 Protect does for three years, and make it one hundred dollars fine for any doe killed. 

 This would protect the old guides, who drive does out of the water; also all good and 

 true sportsmen, who will not kill a doe. But with the present law it is but little use 

 for a guide to try to .save the deer for some pot-hunter to slaughter, or amateur 

 guides, with which the Adirondacks are flooded. They don't care what they do, and 

 the guides of the Adirondacks are imposed on by that class. If the game is destroyed 

 by them, the old guides have to take the blame; so all of the old guides hope that 

 there will be a law to protect the game, and if we protect the does it will keep 

 the deer. 



Abolish floating entirely, for there is no sportsman who loves to hunt that wants 

 to float and kill an old doe or a fawn. 



Mr. Franklin Brandreth, Sing Sing, N. Y., (Proprietor of the Brandreth Preserve, 

 Hamilton County}} — The deer law as it now stands is a good one, and could not be 

 much improved. It is not the deer killed in season that causes a scarcity. In my 

 opinion, crust-hunting and hard winters hurt them more than anything, else. Lumber 

 camps undoubtedly destroy numbers every winter. 



If the law could be enforced, and the deer only killed in season, I am confident 

 they would hold their own. Give an Adirondack deer a show and he will take care 

 of himself. 



Mr. Scudder Todd, Lyons Falls, Lewis County, N. Y, {Woodsman and Forest Land 

 Surveyor}) — The hunting season for killing deer should be limited to at least one-half 

 the time now allowed by law ; or, prohibit the killing of deer for at least five years. If 

 the killing of deer goes on as it has this last year there will not be any deer left after 

 the next five years. 



Mr. Walter C. Witherbcc, Port Henry, Essex County, N. Y. — There is very little 

 hunting done in the town of Moriah proper ; the deer are mostly driven there during the 

 hounding season, and being unmolested stay a day or more before starting back. All 

 around this town there are many deer. Never has there been such a relentless slaughter 

 and large number of hunters as this past fall. During the hounding season, I think it 

 a very conservative estimate to say that there have been from here to the Boreas River, 

 and within one mile of the main highway, an average of at least sixty people hunting 

 daily. To my personal knowledge there have been 1 19 deer killed within the hunting 

 season, in the Schroon River and Boreas River region alone, the majority of these deer 



