404 REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONER. 



although they are not numerous, yet they are still found in scattered 

 families in the northern part of Hamilton, the southern part of St. Law- 

 rence and the western part of Essex counties. Through the considerate 

 attention of Mr. A. Mclntyre, those yet remaining in the southern part of 

 Franklin county are carefully preserved from the avidity of the hunter, 

 and there probably the last of the species in the Atlantic States will be 

 found. We noticed the remains of an old and large beaver dam at the 

 outlet of Lake Fourth in Herkimer county, but it is now nearly covered 

 up by the drift sand from the lake." (loc. cit. p. 74.) 



At the time of DeKay's journey the beaver must have been very rare. 

 He states that in the course of his travels through the wildest interior por- 

 tions of the Adirondacks, he had seen " several beaver signs," but he does 

 not mention that they were fresh or recent, as he would have been almost 

 certain to do had they been so. In all probability they were cuttings a 

 few years old, and perhaps some small dams and deserted houses, not yet 

 destroyed by the elements; although, of course, he might have seen some 

 fresh signs, as beavers were not absolutely unknown at that time in the 

 section through which he passed. 



Rapid Decrease vHnce i<Uo 



In 1840, judging from what I have heard from old hunters, and gath- 

 ered from other sources, I should say that there were probably not to 

 exceed three hundred beavers in the Adirondacks. About this time, or a 

 little earlier, the beaver became finally extinct in all parts of the State 

 outside of the Adirondacks.* 



Their numbers now dropped away rapidly, and henceforth they became 

 greater rarities than " panthers " (pumas) or wolves, which continued 

 in considerable numbers until about 1885. At the mid-century (1850), 

 there were perhaps seventy-five beavers living in the North Woods, and 

 they were mostly confined to the central core of the region ; that is, south- 

 eastern St. Lawrence, southern Franklin, western Essex and northern 



* However, beavers, believed to have escaped from a private preserve, have been observed in 

 Orange county, in the extreme southern part of the State, in recent years, and one is said to have 

 been killed by a railway train in that county, near Two Bridges, in 1905. 



