FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 239 



Capt. Thomas Montague, Croivn Point, Essex County, N. Y. — In my opinion no deer 

 should be killed except from the 1st day of October to the 31st day of October, both 

 inclusive. 



Mr. Warren Pooler, Westport, Essex County, N. Y. — There were more deer killed 

 this year than last ; but do not think there were more deer in the town than there were 

 last year. 



Mr. Edward S. Higby, Willsborough, Essex County, N. Y. — I think all the deer 

 killed in this town, except three, were perhaps driven from some place twenty to 

 twenty-five miles back, escaped the dogs and wandered afterward to this town. 



Mr. Cornelius Carter, Benson Mines, St. Lawrence County, N. Y. {Gamekeeper, 

 Council Preserve.) — The winters of 1893 and 1S95 were very destructive to deer in this 

 section of the Adirondacks, for there were no beech nuts for them to subsist upon 

 while the snow was very deep and the cold severe. 



In the spring of 1893 I had occasion to go out from my camp about half a mile 

 early in April, the snow being mostly gone. I had nothing to guide me, yet I casually 

 ran on the carcasses of three. They were simply a rack of bones with the hides on. 

 The winter of 1895 was nearly as bad ; for within a radius of half a mile of my camp 

 I could count ten carcasses. The oldest and youngest deer suffered the most. The 

 snow being about five feet deep, and no crust, they were unable to move about much. 

 There was no crust to hold them up so they could forage upon the browse, mosses and 

 toad-stools, and if they attempted to leap it was but to fall back in about the same hole. 



It must be conceded that the destruction of deer during the winters of 1893 anc ^ 

 1895 was far greater than from the deadly rifle and shot-gun combined. If these 

 seasons are to continue, it will be necessary for the legislator to scratch his head and 

 rake out an idea which enacted into a law will prove a better protection to deer, or 

 there will be none to protect. 



In my judgment if either hounding or jacking is to be abolished, I should be in 

 favor of stopping the hounding upon the following grounds: 



First. — Because it has a tendency to drive the deer out of the country. 



Second. — That during the fall months deer are fat, and after they have been run 

 from one-half to three hours they become so heated that when they plunge into the 

 cold water the muscles stiffen so that the poor creatures become like a foundered horse, 

 and never recover. 



Third. — That it is cruel and inhuman. When they were allowed to hound on the 

 Webb tract, a distance of from seven to eight miles, they would run them almost 

 every day into the Oswegatchie, where I would frequently find them hidden under 

 the alders in the water near the shore with their heads just above the water, with their 



