HISTORY OF THE ADIRONDACK BEAVER. 395 



Former Abandonee 



When we compare the present paltry numbers of the Adirondack 

 beaver (there cannot be above an hundred in the whole region to-day, 1907) 

 with its wonderful abundance in primitive times, an astounding discrep- 

 ancy appears. Three hundred years ago, when Samuel de Champlain, in 

 1609, sailed into the lake that bears his name, and — first of all white men — 

 saw the beautiful mountains that rise along its western side, the beaver, 

 within the area now known as the Adirondack^,* was probably as plentiful 

 as it had ever been. For an unknown period, this area had been the divid- 

 ing line between two hostile races of Amerinds :| a sort of " dark and bloody 

 ground," into which even the aborigines did not often penetrate, except 

 on warlike excursions. On the whole, the interior portion of the Adiron- 

 dacks is strangely devoid of Indian remains, and it is presumable that 

 much of the territory was seldom or never visited by them. They seem 

 to have confined their travels, when passing backward and forward on 

 their way to battle, to the water routes afforded by the St. Lawrence, 

 Black, Mohawk and Hudson Rivers, and Lakes Champlain, George and 

 Ontario, lying along the borders of this area, and not to have gone far into 

 the central forest in any direction. It is quite certain that before the 

 coming of the white man, the Indian's meagre pursuit of the Adirondack 

 beavers, with his inferior appliances for capture, had never made any prac- 

 tical diminution in their ranks; and in 1609 it may be supposed that they 

 were in the full flower of their abundance. 



If, as is said by the Dutch author quoted by Merriam,J the province 



* For the purposes of this paper, and for simplification, we mav roughly define this area as 

 being bounded on the north by the Canadian line, on the east by Lake Champlain and the Ver- 

 mont line, on the south by the Mohawk River, and on the west by Lake Ontario and the St. Law- 

 rence River. It comprises about one-third of the area of the State and contains, roughly, 16,000 

 square miles, which is practically equivalent to the combined areas of Massachusetts, Connecticut 

 and Rhode Island. St. Lawrence, Franklin, Clinton, Essex, Warren, Washington, Saratoga, Fulton, 

 Hamilton, Lewis and Jefferson counties are included, and parts of Herkimer and Oswego. 



t Amerind: a word now in use among some scientific writers as an equivalent for " American 

 Indian," of which it is a contraction. It deserves a more general usage. 



1 Vid. " De Xieuwe en Oubekende Wiereld : of Berchrying van America en't Zuidland: don 

 Arnoldus Montanus," in Documentary Hist. 0} X. Y., vol. IV, pp. 120-12 1. 



