FOREST, FISH AXD GAME COMMISSIONER. 287 



the ice left the lakes and streams in the spring, when they were carried to 

 suitable points and liberated. During their temporary confinement Mr. 

 Ball reports that they consumed several cords of wood which lie cut for 

 their use, eating only the bark and the small twigs. During the last week 

 in April, Mr. H. A'. Radford, of New Yoik, who is chiefly responsible for the 

 movement to reintroduce the beaver, with Guides Frank and Ben Sperry, 

 Stanley Weedmark, Ira Delmarsh, E. Van Krum and J. H. Higby, volun- 

 teered their services to liberate the beaver. Two of the animals were 

 transported overland 25 miles and turned out on a small stream entering 

 the south branch of the Moose River, where another beaver, which escaped 

 some years ago from the preserve owned by Hon. Timothy L. Woodruff, 

 had built a dam. The other four were liberated on the northeast inlet of 

 Big Moose Lake. The Moose River trio were still at the place where liber- 

 ated when last heard from, but some of the Big Moose Lake beaver have 

 moved over into the Beaver River waters twenty miles to the northwest. 



During the past few years, Mr. Edward Litchfield has liberated about 

 a dozen beaver in his preserve, — Litchfield Park, near Big Tupper Lake. 

 Several of these have escaped to adjoining lands. There is also known to be 

 a small native colony, — the last remnants of the original stock, inhabiting 

 the waters northwest of Tapper Saranac Lake. A conservative estimate 

 of the total number of beaver in the Adirondacks at the present time 

 would probably be 40. 



Very great interest is taken in the liberation and preservation of the 

 beaver by the guides and by other residents of the Adirondacks as well. 

 In order to make the record complete the following letter received from the 

 Secretary of the Brown's Tract Guides' Association is given: 



Old Forge, N. Y., September 11, 1905. 



Mr. John D. Whish, Secretary, Forest, Fish and Game Commission, 

 Albany, X . Y. : 



Dear Sir. — According to my promise I am reporting by letter in the 

 matter of the beaver wintered by the Association for the Commission. 

 About the first of Ma}- they began to get very uneasy and gave us much 

 trouble. The one which we were told at the St. Louis Exposition was a 

 female, and which we were obliged to keep in a separate compartment 

 through the winter, cut its way out several times, finally cutting through 



