268 TENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



or else, covering it with a thin cloth, bury it for twenty-four hours in damp 

 sand, before cooking it. The idea of eating any portion of a liver in which 

 parasites are found is certainly repulsive ; and yet those guides are probably 

 right who say that if the sacs containing these flukes are cut out the rest of 

 the organ is a perfectly safe article of diet. It is well known that the fluke, 

 so common in sheep, is the direct cause of thousands of deaths by what is 

 known as " sheep-rot." That parasite belongs to the same family, but not 

 the same species, as the worm found in the deer's liver, and the latter is 

 never, so far as known, the direct cause of death, certainly not of any such 

 epidemic as occurs among sheep. 



But while flukes may be a contributing cause of the death of poorly 

 fed deer, in extremely cold weather, this does not explain the unusual 

 mortality in the Moose River country, for there is every evidence that 

 flukes are just as common in other parts of the woods as they are there. 

 Last winter was undoubtedly unusually cold; but it was just as cold at 

 Saranac, and in Essex county, and in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and 

 Canada, as on the Moose river. Mr. George H. Moses, Secretary of the 

 New Hampshire Forestry Commission, writes, " The winter was unusually 

 long and severe and deer have been driven further north than usual; but 

 there has been no unusual mortality." Mr. H. G. Thomas, Commissioner 

 of Fisheries and Game, of Vermont, writes, "Have made thorough inquiry 

 throughout the State and have not heard of any deer being found dead 

 from the extreme weather. Reports published in the press are not well 

 founded." Mr. N. E. Cormier, Provincial Game Warden and Fishery 

 Overseer, at Aylmer, Que., writes, " Have lost many deer from snow being 

 so soft and deep, with no crust, that they could not reach their feeding- 

 grounds. Where the snow was not deep have lost very few." Mr. E. E. 

 Ring, Secretary of the Fish and Game Commission, of Maine, writes, " There 

 was very little mortality among deer in this State the past winter, although 

 it has been one of the most severe on record. One of our wardens, near the 

 Canadian border, reports having found a few small deer which had evidently 

 died of exposure and starvation. This is the only case reported." 



In conclusion we regret to be forced to admit that we have been unable 

 to satisfactory account for the unusual mortality in the Moose River 

 region, which, by the way, is not limited to this past winter, but occurred 

 in the winter of 1894-5, and probably in other seasons as well. The snow 

 was deeper than in many other places; but the weather was no colder than 

 elsewhere; flukes are no more common than elsewhere. The stomachs of 

 the deer that we examined were full of food; they did not die of thirst; 

 and there was no infectious disease among them. That there may be some 



