FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONER. 3OI 



Tl>e EUj 



The number of wild elk in the Adirondacks has been steadily increasing 

 during the past five years, since the first carload of twenty-two released in 

 June, 1 901. Besides the natural increase, twenty-six elk — five bulls and 

 twenty-one cows — have been liberated since the appearance of the last 

 annual report. These were obtained by Harry V. Radford, of New York, 

 from Mr. Austin Corbin, who generously donated them to the State of New 

 York. They were brought from Mr. Corbin 's Blue Mountain Forest Park, 

 in New Hampshire, where Mr. Blaine S. Viles, Mr. Corbin's superintendent, 

 attended to catching the elk and putting them upon the cars. Seventeen 

 of the elk were shipped to North Creek, and from there carried upon sleighs 

 thirty miles northwest, to Newcomb, in Essex county, where they were 

 liberated, on State land, in two small bands about four miles apart — nine 

 on the north of Lake Harris, and eight near Woodruff Pond. Each of the 

 bands contained one bull, the others being cows. The expense of liberat- 

 ing these was paid partly by the Newcomb branch of the Adirondack 

 Guides' Association and partly by Mr. John Anderson, Jr., of Newcomb. 

 Mr. E. J. Chase, Vice-President of the Guides' Association, accompanied 

 the elk from New Hampshire, and, with Game Protector Charles Barnes 

 and Mr. Radford, attended to the details of liberation. These elk were 

 released on March 16, 1906. 



On March 2 2d four more of the Corbin elk were liberated on State 

 land, in Warren county, in the " Big Hollow," on West Brook, north of 

 Prospect Mountain, and about three miles west of the village of Lake 

 George. The following day the remaining five were carried down the lake 

 upon the ice, and liberated on Tongue Mountain, on the west side of the 

 lake. Mr. Weslie W. Burton, of The Antlers, Lake George, the Lake George 

 Fish and Game Club, and various hotelmen and cottagers residing along 

 the lake subscribed the funds necessary for the transportation and liber- 

 ation of the elk. 



Most of the cow elk were pregnant when liberated, and both the New- 

 comb and Lake George herds have already considerably increased. About 

 fourteen calves have been added to the Newcomb bands and six to the Lake 

 George herds, making a total of forty-one elk in the two localities at the 



