FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONER. 269 



local cause seems possible. It cannot be the air, or the water. It is possible 

 that the food may in some way be improper, and I would suggest that, if 

 the mortality is repeated another year, investigation be directed particularly 

 in this direction. 



Undoubtedly the snow was deeper in the Moose River region, where 

 most of the deaths occurred, than in other parts of the Adirondacks, and 

 lasted longer. Senator Douglas informs me that his lumber company, at 

 McKeever, had to spend several thousand dollars more than usual in keep- 

 ing their lumber roads in proper condition; that it commenced to snow in 

 the latter part of November, and that more or less fell almost ever}' day 

 until March. 



The most plausib 1 e theory that I have ever heard to connect the mor- 

 tality of deer with deep snow and protracted, severe, cold weather, is that 

 advanced by David Charbonneau, a guide, at Old Forge. He says that 

 after the disappearance of their summer food, the deer are in the habit of 

 subsisting on the roots of the brakes and the "ground hemlock" — a 

 variety of the yew; that this is nutritious food for them; that to get at these 

 two articles of diet, they habitually paw away the snow until it gets too 

 deep; that finally they begin to consume the boughs of the evergreen trees 

 only as a last resort; that the boughs are a poor kind of food, especially 

 poor in heat-producing power; that the deer get along on them in ordinary 

 winters for three or four weeks very well; but that when obliged to subsist 

 on boughs alone for five, or six, or eight weeks of very severe weather, 

 numbers of them succumb not to starvation alone, but to the combined 

 effect of starvation and cold. They may be found frozen to death with 

 their stomachs full of this unnutritious food. This theory would account 

 for the four deer which we examined, and is the only one so far advanced 

 that would. 



I have the honor to be, 



Very respectfully, 



Samuel B. Ward. 



An Interesting Letter 



Saranac Inn, N. Y., June 2, 1904. 



Dr. S. B. Ward, 281 State street, Albany, N. Y.\ 



My Dear Doctor. — In reply to your letter of May 31st, asking for 

 information regarding my deer, I will endeavor to give you a short synopsis 

 of my experience, which has been most varied and interesting: 



