264 TENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



tality has not been greater than usual, and some of them think that it has 

 been rather less. In many regions the number of living deer, in excellent 

 condition, is reported as unusually large. 



Mr. Wellington Kenwell, who lived for many years at Indian Plains, 

 or Moose River Clearing, summer and winter, writes at considerable length. 

 He says that the number of deer dying on the south branch of the Moose 

 river was considerable, but far below the winter of 1894-95, and no more, 

 in proportion to the number living then in other localities. Deaths were 

 generally due to the severe cold. Baker and Gray saved the lives of many 

 deer by putting out hay, sprinkled with brine; deer collected in droves of 

 fifty and cleaned it up. The fact is that on the South Branch of the Moose 

 the deer increase more rapidly than they are killed off, and there is not 

 food enough for so many. ' To diverge a little, I would say that very few 

 of the modern guides get away from the beaten roads and bar-rooms during 

 the winter, so their conclusions are of no value and apt to be misleading." 



Mr. Richard Crego, President Brown's Tract Guides' Association, 

 writes from Big Moose, that they found eighteen dead deer and a good 

 many weak ones that will not Spring through. They were nearly all found 

 on Township 41, east of Big Moose. Forest fires and lumbering, west of 

 Township 41, drove the deer into that township, where there was some 

 green timber, but not enough to keep them all alive. He employed guides 

 to cut browse and carry to the deer. He attributes the deaths to starva- 

 tion. It was from this region that three carcasses were sent to Professor 

 Moore, of Cornell, and four to the Bender Laboratory. It is difficult to 

 understand how the four that we had could have died of starvation alone 

 with hemlock and spruce twigs in their stomach weighing from 5^ to 13 

 pounds. 



That more deer die in the woods during every winter than during 

 the summer is undoubtedly true. These deaths are due to what are called 

 " natural causes." Of course, if a deer dies of nothing else he will eventu- 

 ally die of old age, and this is, in point of fact, the only really natural cause 

 of death. But undoubtedly, in the ordinary use of words, extreme cold 

 and lack of a sufficient amount of proper food, which may reach the point 

 of simple, plain starvation, are included among natural causes. Again, it is 

 certainly true that these three conditions operate together. That is, a 

 deer in the prime of life will endure and live through an exposure to cold 

 and a privation of food which would kill an old one, or a very young one. 

 This accounts for the fact, noted by almost all guides, that in ordinary 

 winters, of the deer found dead the majority are old, and next in order 

 come late fawns. Many of the old ones are found to have lost their teeth, 



