Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



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NEW YORK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1895. 



i VOL. XLV,— No. 12. 



I No. 818 Bboadway Nbw York. 



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WOLVES IN THE ADIRONDACKS. 

 Dr. W. Sewakd Webb confirms the report of the kill- 

 ing of a gray wolf in Nehasane Park, and informs us that 

 it was captured by G-eorge Muir at Gull Lake the first 

 week in June of the present year. This is, in our opinion, 

 the most interesting piece of information with regard to 

 the Adirondacks that has come to light for many a day. 

 It has generally been conceded for a ^number of years 

 past that wolves were extinctfin this region, and our ac- 

 count of the wolf killed at Brandreth Lake two years ago 

 was a source of surprise to many. In commenting upon 

 this wolf we said, "This country [in the vicinity of 

 Brandreth Lake is one of the last strongholds of the wolf 

 in the Eastern States, certainly the last in New York 

 . State, and it is interesting to note that probably a small 

 remnant of the once proud race still lingers in this local- 

 ity." Gull Lake is only ten miles in an air line from 

 Brandreth Lake, and Dr. Webb informs us that there is 

 at least one more wolf in that neighborhood, while re- 

 ports from other sources would indicate that there are 

 several others within a radius of twenty miles. 



The subject is one of extreme interest from more than 

 one standpoint, and it is not at all impossible that we may 

 see a return of wolves to the Adirondacks under the 

 changed conditions which obtain there at present, though 

 of course it is not likely that they will ever increase to any 

 great extent. 



Judging from the data which we possess it seems rea- 

 sonably certain that the main cause for the wolves leav- 

 ing the Adirondacks was the scarcity of the food supply. 

 We have seen the same thing in Maine and other wild 

 countries. The wolves prey upon deer principally, and with 

 such relentless ferocity that large areas are depopulated so 

 that scarcely a deer remains. The early settlers of the 

 Adirondacks were in their hunting instincts scarcely less 

 humane than the wolves, and before the period of strict 

 game laws and game law enforcement the deer led an un- 

 enviable existence. They were between the devil and the 

 deep sea; the wolves in the wilderness drove them out to 

 the settlements, and the hunters there slaughtered them 

 in the deep snows when utterly helpless. Under such 

 conditions it was only a question of time till the deer 

 should be annihilated. They had no refuge or asylum, 

 and both wolves and hunters killed when they had the 

 opportunity without restraint and left to rot what they 

 could not use. 



In Vermont this thing actually happened, and they had 

 to import deer from a distance when they wished to re- 

 stock their woods. In Maine and the Adirondacks there 

 were great sections of wild country where never a deer 

 was seen, and where in winter one could travel for days 

 without crossing a deer's trail. Here and there, however, 

 a few deer had escaped, and these are the seed from 

 which the present stock has sprung. 



When the wolves found that the deer were gone there 

 was but one course open to them, and they migrated. 

 The bounty records of the Adirondacks show conclusively 

 that their disappearance was not caused by any killing 



by the settlers. They simply were starved out. This is 

 the history of the wolves everywhere where man has 

 taken a hand and aided them in the slaughter of the 

 game. Soon the supply is exhausted, and the wolves 

 have to look out for other fields. 



Of recent years a great change has taken place in the 

 Adirondacks. Large sections of the country are now 

 controlled [by clubs and speculators who hold their land 

 for clubs, and closed to general hunting as much as in 

 the days when all was wilderness, untrodden by the foot 

 of civilized man. There are thousands of acres where 

 no hunting at all is permitted, and thousands more 

 where the hunting is so limited as to have little 

 or no effect upon the deer supply. Add to this 

 the fact that the deer everywhere are carefully protected 

 by the game laws and that crusting is a thing of the past, 

 and it is not surprising to learn that the deer everywhere, 

 except around the outskirts and the few places where 

 promiscuous hunting is allowed, have multiplied tenfold. 

 We do not believe it an exaggeration to say that there 

 are at present more deer in the Adirondacks than there 

 ever were. The same thing is true of Maine and other 

 game sections in the East. Nor is it difficult to account 

 for the increase, as it is a direct result of the disappear- 

 ance of market-hunting, crust-hunting and the wolves. 



As things are at present, the Adirondacks would be a 

 paradise for wolves — not an army of wolves perhaps, but 

 a few well-drilled and shrewd bands, hunting by twos 

 and threes and giving a wide berth to man. There is 

 room enongh for them and an inexhaustible supply of 

 food, and the danger is not so great as it was a few years 

 ago. Not only are there large areas that no hunters in- 

 vade, but there are also considerable sections where no 

 trapping is allowed. The old generation of hunters has 

 passed away, tracking on the snow is no longer legal, and 

 there are few men in the woods to-day who would recog- 

 nize a wolf's trail if they saw it. 



Under such conditions it is not impossible that the 

 howl of the old freebooters may once again become 

 common in the more remote parts of the Adirondacks. 



THE EARL AND THE CUP. 



We would be glad to think that we had been mistaken 

 in the estimate which we some time since made of the 

 Earl of Dunraven as a sportsman, but the events of the 

 past week have confirmed only too fully our opinion of 

 his lack of true sportsmanlike principle and the selfishness 

 of his motives. 



At the time some seven or eight years ago when Lord 

 Dunraven abandoned a not very successful political career 

 and first took up yachting, a very serious dispute was on 

 between the New York Yacht Club and British yachts- 

 men. The charges were made against the club, as we 

 still believe correctly, that in assuming the ownership of 

 the America's Cup and making new conditions to govern 

 the contests for it, the club had acted illegally and un- 

 fairly, having no right to establish any conditions of its 

 own and having gone further in establishing very unfair 

 ones. So serious was the dispute that the Royal Yacht 

 Squadron had declined to race again for the trophy, and 

 international racing was at a standstill. 



Trie whole future of international racing was, and still 

 is, in oar opinion, centered in the question whether the 

 America's Cup as a perpetual challenge trophy for inter- 

 national competition is the common property of all ex- 

 isting yacht clubs, to be raced for on fair and equal terms, 

 or whether it is in effect the private property of the New 

 York Y. C.;the privilege of competing for it being ac- 

 corded to foreign clubs as a favor and not as a right. 

 Lord Dunraven'^ advent as a racing yachtsman came 

 when this controversy was at its height, and he first 

 achieved more than a local reputation by sending a chal- 

 lenge in 1889 in the name of the first Valkyrie. How his 

 negotiations with the club failed is still fresh in the mem- 

 ory of American yachtsmen, as is his declaration, oft re- 

 peated during the long correspondence, that he did not care 

 for the trophy, but only wished to meet the fastest Amer- 

 ican yacht. At this time the 70ft. class, with Titania, 

 Katrina and Shamrock, was at its prime. Lord Dun- 

 raven's first Valkyrie was of 70ft. waterline, and Gen. 

 Paine had offered a valuable cup for an international 

 race in the class. Had Lord Dunraven come out here 

 with Valkyrie I. and sailed for the Paine cup and other 

 prizes, he would have strengthened the growing opposi- 

 tion to the new deed, have shown himself a bold and dis- 

 interested yachtsman and made many friends here. As 



soon, however, as it was clear that no match could be 

 made for the America's Cup, his ardor cooled, and noth- 

 ing more was heard of his desire to meet the American 

 yachts. 



Another three years with no signs of a challenge 

 brought matters to a pass where, with a change of 

 administrations, the New York Y. C. was on the very 

 eve of making some alteration in the fixed and immutable 

 conditions of the new deed, no more than absolutely 

 necessary, but enough to induce a challenge from a British 

 club. J ust at this juncture Lord Dunraven again appeared 

 with a proposal to waive all questions of fairness and 

 legality, provided that he was granted a match with a 

 series of five races and certain other minor conditions. 

 How the match was arranged and finally sailed, by dint 

 of many letters and telegrams and on terms mutually 

 misunderstood and differently interpreted by both parties, 

 is too recent to need repetition here. Lord Dunraven 

 succeeded, by much letter writing and confused corre- 

 spondence, in involving the Royal Yacht Squadron in a 

 match, in defiance of its previous repudiation of the new 

 deed. 



The recent negotiations which have resulted in such a 

 lamentable fiasco were but a repetition in a measure of 

 those of 1892-3, but this time the Squadron had at last 

 reached a better understanding of the true position of 

 affairs; and it was only through the strongest personal 

 efforts of Lord Dunraven that it was finally induced to 

 waive all questions of principle and accept in return 

 certain conditions which Lord Dunraven considered were 

 favorable to him. 



The agreement between the New York Yacht Club and 

 Lord Dunraven, consummated last January, was a simple 

 one. The club was to give him perfectly fair conditions to 

 govern the immediate races, conditions which it had 

 denied to such bold yachtsmen as Sir Richard Sutton and 

 Lieut. Henn, and he in return was to secure from the 

 Royal Yacht Squadron a recognition of the right of the 

 New York Y. C. to lay down permanent conditions on 

 which it should hold the America's Cup, and an indorse- 

 ment of the terms of the new deed of gift as legal, fair 

 and equitable. It must be said that the New York Y. C- 

 has lived up fairly and generously to the letter and spirit of 

 this bargain; it has given to Lord Dunraven terms which 

 are perfectly fair and sportsmanlike, and it has adhered 

 to these terms throughout the series of races. It did re- 

 fuse the one unreasonable request that, for no valid rea- 

 son, it should abandon its home waters and sail the races 

 at Newport or Marblehead, but in every other particular 

 the slightest wish of the challenger has been carried out. 

 Considering the treatment he has received from the club, 

 a courtesy and consideration accorded to no previous 

 challenger, the very least that Lord Dunraven could have 

 done on Thursday would have been to restrain his pique 

 and vexation and to sail out the third race. In withdraw- 

 ing as he did, for mere frivolous reasons, he has shown 

 himself not as a bold and spirited* yachtsman who would 

 sail a losing race to a finish, but only as an unsuccessful 

 and disappointed aspirant for the honors of international 

 racing. His yachting career in America is ended, and he 

 has already disappeared from international racing. 



It is a remarkable fact that the first challenger who 

 has been allowed to race on perfectly fair and even con- 

 ditions should be the one to withdraw before the series of 

 races was finished. Had Sir Richard Sutton or Lieut. 

 Henn or Mr. James Bell hauled down his flag and declined 

 to continue a race when hemmed in on every side in the 

 narrow passage that guards the entrance to Upper New 

 York Bay, or in the narrow and tortuous channels about 

 the southwest Spit, no one could have blamed them. 

 They had started on this unfair inside course under pro- 

 test, and with no chance of winning, but they sailed the 

 races out like men, and when defeated went home with- 

 out a murmur. 



In place of the series of three races — which was all that 

 the previous challengers could obtain, and one of these 

 iDside of New York Bay — the last challenger had been 

 granted a series of five races and far outside of Sandy 

 Hook, under special conditions laid down by himself. 

 Unlike the other challengers, he had been here before 

 and knew exactly what he must expect from the attend- 

 ant fleet, over which the committee can have no control 

 whatever. With such fair opportunities and such full 

 knowledge, there is no justification whatever for the 

 insult which he has offered to the New York Yacht Club 

 and to the people who have twice treated him with 

 exceptional courtesy and hospitality 



