224 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



shores of the lake are literally alive with men watching for deer. Ten years ago there 

 were several points in the woods where the dogs could be put out with a very reason- 

 . able chance of starting a deer. Now, I know of but one. In this secluded spot they 

 yard in the winter, and here the hunter finds them in the fall. The hounding of them 

 at the present time is simply barbarous. No regard is paid to feeling. I saw one 

 brought to my landing that had been run for six hours through a farming section that 

 had its intestines brought to view in several places by jumping barbed wire fences. 

 Another was caught while hanging on such a fence. Another was found dead after 

 the season was over, apparently killed in that way. No attention is paid to the Sabbath, 

 but the barking of hounds and shooting by hunters all around the lake and through 

 the woods are heard everywhere. A man too unskillful and lazy to get a deer by still- 

 hunting, can, with a boat, watch a runway and with a club kill the deer. Is this 

 sport ? And yet dozens are so killed every year. 



That deer are decreasing very fast in this locality * is well known, and only a few 

 years more hounding will make them extinct. The men who hunt, nearly all say this, 

 and to my personal knowledge would vote to stop it ; but as long as the law permits 

 they will follow. I would prohibit hounding entirely for a term of years. No one thing 

 would draw as many sportsmen to the woods and keep them ; for by this action we 

 would have more good hunting. 



Mr. Frank Pierce, Stratford, N. Y. (Supervisor Town of Stratford, Fulton County}) — 

 The present deer law is all right, if enforced during the crusting season. I believe 

 that special protectors employed for six weeks in winter would reduce illegal killing 

 ninety per cent. 



Mr. D. E. Farrington, Indian Lake, Hamilton County, N. Y. (Guide and Proprietor 

 of a Hunter s Lodged — In regard to hounding deer I think we ought to have a longer 

 season for hounding. My opinion, like that of most of the guides, is that we should 

 be allowed twenty days more hounding under the law ; then there will be less viola- 

 tions, or less dogs. 



Mr. Charles H. Palmer, Elizabethtozvn, Essex County, N. K— The hounding season 

 should be changed. It is very essential that hounding should be allowed here; but the 

 date fixed by law, as it now stands, is too early to commence hounding. I would 

 recommend that the hounding season be changed so as to commence September 20th 

 and end October 20th or November 1st. If this is done, less deer will be slaughtered; 



* In publishing Mr. Kirby's interesting and valuable opinion, it may be well to explain that the 

 locality which he refers to is situated on the northern edge of the Great Forest ; and that the gradual 

 disappearance of the deer in his vicinity may be due to the steady encroachment of agricultural opera- 

 tions and consequent disappearance of the forests. 



