284 ELEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



inbreeding alone would be sufficient to bring about the extermination of 

 the moose in a few years, even though they were to meet with no other 

 mishap. 



The elk were never so numerous as were the moose in the Adirondacks 

 in former times, and it is likely that no portion of the continent affords 

 conditions better adapted for sustaining the latter species. Considering 

 this fact and also that the moose is more esteemed by Eastern sportsmen 

 than the elk, it would seem, in view of the success which has attended the 

 re introduction of the elk, that the State's endeavors to restock its forests 

 with the king of American forest creatures should not cease because of a 

 temporary embarrassment following the first spasmodic effort. The pro- 

 moters of the moose restocking experiment continue to insist that it has 

 not yet been given a fair trial, and that the money already appropriated 

 will have been worse than misspent if new blood is not immediately added, 

 so that what has been done may be safeguarded and made permanent. 

 They maintain that the indirect benefits which the liberation of moose in the 

 Adirondacks has already accomplished, such as the increased attention 

 which has been attracted to that region on the part of tourists from all parts 

 of the country, the enhanced general interest in the preservation of game, 

 and the greater care now exercised by hunters who fear to shoot a moose in 

 mistake for a deer and perhaps incur a heavy fine or suffer imprisonment 

 for so doing, with the consequent decrease in the number of human sacrifices 

 to careless shooting, have alone amply justified the initial appropriation. 

 Moreover, the value of the experiment to science, whether it ultimately 

 succeeds or not, is claimed by its advocates to warrant the reasonable 

 reappropriation which will be asked by them in order to continue the 

 work. 



The law allows sixty days in which to report the shooting or trapping 

 of a black bear, and as many of the bears killed in November and December 

 are not reported until January or February, it has been found necessary to 

 record here only the number of bears killed during the year closing on June 

 30, when the close season (July 1 to September 30) begins. For the purpose 

 of making the records of bears killed in this state complete from the date 

 when the new bear law went into effect (May 9, 1904) we add a table showing 

 the number of bears reported killed between that date and June 30, 1904. 



