Oct. U, 1893.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



317 



acoouiiLed for by the fact tliat there had been no snow 

 before or that the deer had wandered in from the wilder 

 and unfrequented woods. 



Charles Robinson and the brother above quoted say, 

 however, that signs of similar animals have been seen 

 since. This is an interesting assertion, but it seems un- 

 likely that it can ever be substantiated. 



After the hunt was over an old French Canadian 

 working for one of the Robinsons, on seeing the dead 

 atlimal exclaimed, "Where did you get your reindeer?" 

 As he claimed to have killed caribou in Canada, they 

 thought him an authority on the subject, and often re- 

 ferred to it as a reindeer. Others, however, said the deer 

 was a caribou, and in course of time it came pretty 

 generally to be called by the latter name. 



The Robinsons noted that the animal had canine or eye 

 teeth, similar to that of the male horse. The feet were 

 very round and large, being about the size of a yearling 

 Steer. 



An identification could never have been surely 

 made by the description of the animal alone, though 

 from the facts already given it seemed extremely likely 

 that it was an American elk or wapiti. However, ad- 

 ditional evidence of the most valuable character was to 

 be had. The head had been preserved and mounted, and 

 was in possession of Mr. James Ten Eyck, of Albany, and 

 in addition to this the skin was secm-ed and sent by Mr. 

 Charles Robinson to Forest and Stream. 



Mr. Ten Eyck, who is a genial and popular sportsman, 

 did all in his power to aid the investigation. Forest 

 AND Stream consulted with some eminent authorities in 

 Washington, and finally the identity of the strange an- 

 imal was settled. Contrary to previous suppositions it 

 WaB decided that the animal was a European red deer. 



This head was niounted by a man who had been accus- 

 tomed to set up "Virginia deer, and his predilection is un- 

 mistakably shown in the result as illustrated. He has 

 molded the face and neck and arranged the ears in a very 

 unnatural manner for the red deer, which resembles our 

 elk much more nearly than our common deer. Though 

 the excellent photograph seems to indicate it, there are no 

 white markings on the face similar to the Virginia deer. 

 The photograph is the work of Mr. A. W, Floyd and the 

 head is in the possession of Mr, James Ten Eyck of Albany. 



In the meanwhile an explanation of its appearance in 

 the Adhondacks had been secured. This came from 

 Mr. Wm. Pickhardt, of New York. Mr. Pickhardt made 

 the following statement to a representative of Forest 

 AND Stream: 



' 'Some ten or twelve years ago 1 imported a buck and 

 doe red deer from Hanover. I put them out in an in- 

 closute on the east side of Schroon Lake, lioping to be 

 able to breed from them. Unfortunately the first year 

 after they were in my possession, about the time for tlie 

 doe to come in heat, she accidentally caught one of her 

 legs in the crotcji of a beech tree, which resulted in a 

 broken leg and her subsequent death. 



"I kept the buck with the idea of crossing with the 

 Virginia deer of the Adirondacks, of which I kept half 

 a dozen young does in a neighboring inclosure. After 

 they were three years old and had grown sufficiently I 

 let these does loose in the territory east of Schroon Lake. 

 I also released the red deer. 



"Tie red deer was never again seen in that neighbor- 

 hood, but the young does were very tame and kept about 

 the fence on the outside, in fact, several of them were 

 shot by local hunters. This happened in 1884, I tliink, 

 but I am not sure as to the date." Mr. Pickhardt also says 

 that he has heard reports of large tracks that he thought 

 were made' by this deer from time to time, both in the 

 neighborhood of Schroon Lake and further north, and 

 that he thought a strange animal seen near Elizabeth- 

 town, of which an account will be given, was this red 

 deer. No later than last fall a hound was found badly 

 torn by the antlers of some strange deer, and it was 

 argued that this must have been done by the red deer 

 which invariably showed fight to dogs, a course which is in 

 strong contrast to the action of the common deer. 



When Mr. Pickhardt was shown a photograph of the 

 head of the deer killed at Long Lake, however, he re- 

 luctantly acknowledged after examination that there 

 could be no doubt of its identity with his deer. The horn 

 development, and also the weight as given by the hunters, 

 corresponded very closely with that of the animal he had 

 released. 



It is an interesting fact that Mr. Pickhardt believes his 

 deer succeeded in crossing with the common deer after its 

 release. If such a thing were possible it would perhaps 

 serve to explain a strange deer which has been seen in the 

 last few years in the neighborhood of Elizabethtown, and 

 to which reference has been made. 



Last fa,U a year ago the local correspondent of the 

 Essex County Eepublimn wrote to his paper: "Many 

 tracks of a moose (?) have been seen, but so far the hunters 

 have not been lucky enough to start him with the dogs. 

 Two years ago he was seen out twice, but was not wounded, 

 although many shots were sent in his direction." 



With reference to the above Geo. H, James, a well- 

 known EUzabethtown hunter, wrote Forest and Stream 

 under date of Oct. 31, 1893. as follows: 



"I do not think there are any moose at the present time 

 in the Adirondacks. Two years ago tliis fall we had a 

 deer hunt from wha^t is known as the Cedar Swamp on 

 the side of Hurricane. Wm. Hayes and Chas. Root went 

 in to 'start' the dogs. They put the dogs on an ordinary 

 deer track. But they struck on the track of what we 

 called a 'caribou.' It first came out in a lot near a ceme- 

 tery which was a 'runway' and was guarded by Dr. Blood, 

 who says he first heard his hoofs rattle in the stones some 

 30 rods away, and cou d not think what it was, but blazed 

 away, but did not hit it, and it trotted on up the mountain 

 toward where I was, I saw it crawl over a stone wall 

 and wondered what it was. It must have stopped in the 

 brush, for it was some 15 minutes after the Doctor shot 

 before I opened. Blood motioned up the mountain with 

 his gun. When I next saw it it was some 8U rods 

 from me, and trotted along, not loping like our deer, and 

 looked as long as a rail. I shot three times at it before 

 it reached the woods. J. D. Nicholson, who was on a 

 rimway above me, left and came toward me to see wliat 

 it was I was shooting at, and while he was down there the 

 'caribKJu" came across his runway^ and that was the last 

 seen of him. His tracks have been seen in the woods 

 since, but we have never been able to get him out again. 

 * * * Our 'caribou' makes a track very much like a 

 'critter^' round." 

 Though Mr. Jamgs gives practically no description at 



all of the animal itself, it being nearly a quarter of a mile 

 from him at the time he shot, and too distant to see very 

 plainly, he gives some interesting peculiarities which are 

 worth noting. Chief among these were its gait and hoof 

 impressions, which resembled those of cattle. Other 

 hunters and men whose business takes them into the 

 woods have reported similar tracks in this neighbor- 

 hood, and among these may be mentioned Wm, Denton, 

 who, while gathering spruce gum, came on the tracks of 

 an animal that he would have supposed to be a cow had 

 they not been found near the summit of a mountain, and 

 in a location that was very inaccessible and where no 

 cow had ever been seen. James's description bears a 

 strong likeness to that which Charles Robinson gave of 

 the Long Lake "caribou," and it would be interesting to 

 know definitely what the animal he saw was. It is said 

 to inhabit at the present time a cedar swamp on the side 

 of Hurricane, and hunters who have followed it say that 

 the toe half of their boots would just fit its track. 



In reply to a question bearing on the subject of big deer 

 in the Adirondacks, Charles Fenton, of Number Four, on 

 the Beaver River, wrote: 



"I ]ised often to hear reports that some old hunter had 

 killed a caribou. I know two old guides, now over 60 years 

 old, who claimed to have killed caribou; one of them who 

 had guided in the Saranac region thirty years ago. After 

 I had a fine head,. which I procured in Maine, mounted 

 and hung up in my dining room, this guide came to my 

 house, and some'way we began talking about caribou. He 

 positively asserted that he had seen several on the east side 

 of the woods. I did not dispute him but only asked him 

 to give me a general description, which he did and by 

 which I knew they were not caribou. He did not know 

 that I had a specimen. I asked him in the dining room 

 to dinner. I noticed that his eyes wandered over to the 

 caribou head but said not a word. When he arose from 

 the table he walked up to the head and viewed it minutely 

 and I was surprised to see him walk out of the dining 



BED DEER KIIJ.ED IN ADIRONDACKS. 



room without saying a word. Meeting a man on the walk 

 he says to him, 'What head is that on the wall in the 

 dining room?' Being fond of a joke and knowing how 

 sure he was that he knew all about caribou, he i-eplied that 

 he did not know what it was, that I had put it there 

 lately, etc. Meeting another man he made the same in- 

 quiry, who told him that he thought it must be some little 

 cow's head fixed up with horns. The guide replied that 

 that was just what he thought it was. Finally he asked me, 

 and when I told him he admitted frankly and without 

 hesitation, that if that was a caribou he had never seen 

 one before. 



'Another hunter and guide who declared that he had 

 killed a caribou thirty years ago near Brandreth's Lake, 

 admitted at once on seeing the head that what he killed 

 supposing to be a caribou was no such animal as that. 



"Deer have degenerated since twenty-five or thii-ty 

 years ago, as would naturally happen by much hunting 

 and the killing of does in summer, leaving the fawns to 

 grow up stunted, and to attain at best but small size. I 

 find that all specimens of caribou clauned to haA^e been 

 killed or seen in the Adirondacks were nothing but over- 

 grown bucks of gi-eat age, as they had a chance to be at 

 that time, and very likely had deformed or peculiar horns, 

 as very old deer are likely to have. I see no reason why 

 caribou should not have inhabited the Adirondack region 

 unless it be beyond their southern limit. Caribou are made 

 to inhabit cold and snowy regions and of course will not go 

 beyond a southern limit. As caribou are much harder to 

 exterminate than deer it seems to me that caribou were 

 never found here. The northern part of New Hampshire 

 is theu- southern limit. Now about moose. The last track 

 I saw in the Adirondacks was about twenty years ago, and 

 since that time reports have come that tracks were seen 

 on the headwaters of the Independence River, once a 

 famous ground for moose. But I did not rely much on 

 these reports, as they came from young men who might 

 not know a moose track, until, I think, about three years 

 ago, when an old surveyor over sixty years of age and who 

 has always had charge of the Lyon estate in the Adiron- 

 dacks, and who traveled the woods when moose tracks 

 were plenty, told me that he saw a very large moose track 

 in tlie vicinity mentioned. Now, this man is reliable, and 

 I would believe him as surely as if I had seen it myself. 

 The track I saw was a young moose, and it is probable 

 that it was liviag at that time. This is all I know about 

 the likelihood of there being moose left in the Adiron- 

 dacks. ■ 



"The last moose killed of which I have any knowl- 

 edge was killed by the late Governor Seymour north of 

 Albany Lake. I have killed over one thousand deer in 

 the Adirondacks in the past fifty yeai'S and have seen 

 thousands more, and I have no reason to beUeve that there 



ever existed more than one variety of deer in the Adir- 

 ondacks, 



"It was the prevalent idea among guides and people 

 hving in the Adu'ondacks that a caribou did not differ 

 materially from the deer, and that it would really re- 

 quire an expert in zoology to distinguish the difference. 

 The guide who was the most positive that he had seen 

 caribou used to guide it in the Saranac region, and it was 

 there lie saw them. But when he saw my specimen (I 

 have the feet, too), he frankly admitted that he had never 

 seen a caribou, and that his supposed caribou vp-ere not 

 caribou at aU." 



Mr. Jacob K. Wood, of North Elba, another widely 

 known hunter and a man of long experience in the woods, 

 gives the following interesting facts under date of Nov. 

 7, 1892: 



"I know of no other species of deer than that which 

 exists here to-day — namely, the common 'Adirondack 

 deer.' 



"I have always lived in this locality and have done 

 considerable hunting in the last thirty-five years, and in 

 that length of time I have not known of there being a 

 single moose or caribou killed in the Adirondacks. One 

 of a party with which I was hunting several years 

 ago killed a very large buck which weighed, after hang- 

 ing nine days in the woods, 2701bs. Some of the party 

 called it a caribou, but there was nothing in the shape of 

 the horns or the build of the animal that would indicate 

 that such was the fact, and I thought then, as I do now, 

 that it was nothing more than an old and overgrown 

 deer. 



"My imcle, Robert G. Scott, was with the party that 

 killed the last moose in this part of the Adirondacks, and 

 this was in 1841. 



"We have none of the so-called 'swamp bucks' here. 

 We do occasionally get a dark-haired, short-legged, heavy- 

 bodied buck, which resemble in many respects the 

 'swamp bucks' of the South. The average bucks here 

 will dress from 150 to 1801bs. and occasionally we get them 

 that will dress considerably more, my son having shot 

 one two years ago this fall that dressed 2201bs., which 

 had it been as fat as others we have killed would have 

 dressed 2501bs. But it is very seldom that one is killed 

 in these parts that will dress over 2001bs, I think that 

 the size of deer depends greatly on the age; that is, I have 

 always noticed that large and overgrown deer have 

 shown to be of considerable age. 



"Deer are much thicker here now than twelve or four- 

 teen years ago. I can remember then traveling all 

 day through splendid deer country, with five or six dogs, 

 and had great difficulty in starting a single deer, wherein 

 for the past few years I could start the same number of 

 dogs within an hour's tramp from home." 



It will be noticed that in the foregoing letters mention 

 is made of a behef among certain hunters that they have 

 seen or killed caribou, and this despite the fact that 

 caribou ffrobably never existed in the Adirondacks. No 

 good authority for or evidence of their appearance in 

 northern New York can be found, 



Audubon speaks of the "caribou of Newfoundland, 

 Labrador, Canada, and the States bordeidng on the St. 

 Lawrence." 



Merriam, "Mammals of the Adirondacks," p. 114, foot 

 note says, "I have been unable to tind a trustworthy 

 record of the reindeer or caribou from this region." He 

 refers to DeKay's account of supposed caribou horns and 

 says that measurements show them to have been elk 

 horns. 



The explanation of the application of the name is 

 probably the following: Moose have existed in the Adir- 

 ondacks within the hfetime of the fathers of the present 

 generation of hunters, and even in the memory of some 

 of the older men now living. This animal is consequently 

 well known, and no one could be tempted to give its 

 name to any other deer. The caribou, on the contrary, 

 is an animal with which the hunters are in no way 

 famihar, but of which, on accoimt of its proximity in the 

 neighboring wilds of Canada and Maine, they have heard 

 a great deal. Naturally they give this familiar name to 

 any unfamiliar member of the deer family, and hkewise 

 to abnormal specimens of the common variety. 



In speaking of strairge deer the name of elk is never 

 used because this animal is not commonly foimd nowa- 

 days within several thousand miles of the Adirondacks, 

 and its name has an imf amihar sound. 



J, B. Bqrnham. 



Nebraska Game. 



Beatrice, Neb., Sept, 28,— Waterfowl are coming in in 

 increasing numbers now and are very fat, TJpland 

 plover have come and gone, other plover are quite numer- 

 ous, and a good many teal and wood duck are reported by 

 hunters. The large ducks have not arrived as yet and 

 the goose brigade has not been heard from. 



Squirrels are numerous and in good condition. 



Every httle di-aw, weed patch, hedge and plum thicket 

 holds its own covey of Bob Whites and all kinds of 

 grouse are favorably reported as to numbers all through 

 the western part' of the State. 



Young jack rabbits are very numerous around the 

 stubble fields and the common cottontail is here to fur- 

 nish the schoolboy with all the fim he wants. 



Withal, I think the prospect for the coming shooting 

 season in Nebraska is better than for years. 



El Comancho. 



"American Big Game Hunting," the Book of the Boone 

 and Crockett Club, is nut this week, and a descriptive circu- 

 lar will be sent free on application. 



You are invited 



to visit the " Forest and Stream's" 

 exhibit in the Angling Pavilion at 

 the entrance from the main hall 

 of the Fisheries Building, in the 

 World's Fair. 



