136 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Feb. 17, 1894. 



AMERICAN GAME PARK5. 



The "Forest and Stream's" First Annual 

 Report on Game in Preserves. 



In the issues of March 12, 1891, and May 26, 1892, For- 

 est and Stream published accounts of Mr. Austin Cor- 

 bin's Blue Mountain Forest Park. In the second of these 

 articles particular attention was paid to giving an esti- 

 mate of the increase of wild animals in the park. So 

 much interesting matter was developed that it has now 

 been deemed profitable to follow out this same line of in- 

 vestigation with the other game preserves which are 

 yearly becoming more numerous in this 

 country, and in a rough way take a census of 

 the wild animals with which they are'stocked. 

 One of the main objects of this census 

 is to ascertain, wherever possible, the increase 

 of the different species in confinement, there- 

 by demonstrating which are most prolific in 

 changed hahitats and under strange con- 

 ditions, and enabling a discrimination of those 

 most suited for special parks. With this ob- 

 ject in view the inquiry will be continued 

 each year, and the results laid before our 

 readers. 



Blue Mountain Forest Park. 



The Corbin Park in New Hampshire pre- 

 sents one of the most successful examples of 

 game stocking on a large scale that has ever 

 •been achieved in this country. Its concep- 

 tion only da,tes back seven years, when Mr. 

 Corbin conceived the idea of inclosing a few 

 thousand acres in the vicinity of his home- 

 stead at Newport, N. H., and it is only a little 

 more than four years since the first wild 

 game was released there. 



Mr. Corbin's first intention was to inclose 

 about 5,000 acres of land. His modest esti- 

 mate grew till he ended by inclosing 26,000. 

 Two years were consumed in building the 

 fence of barbed and woven wire, putting up 

 gates and making other necessary arrange- 

 ments for the care of the animals. 



Previous to the completion of the fence an 

 inclosure of about thirty acres had been con- 

 structed in which twenty buffalo had been 

 placed. When the fence was at last finished, 

 the formal stocking of the park began. 



The following animals were released: 130 

 deer, 150 elk, 20 moose, 30 antelope, 7 rein- 

 deer, 14 wild boars and 20 buffalo. Mr. Cor- 

 bin, in speaking of them at the present time, 

 says: 



"I lost all the antelope and all the rein- 

 deer. The antelope because of the cHmate 

 being too variable, and the reindeer for want 

 of the proper food. I am satisfied that neither 

 animal will thrive on the Atlantic coast, except that 

 north of central Maine the reindeer may possibly do well. 



"My deer are now estimated at about 400; elk, 400; 

 moose, 60; wild boars, 250. All these animals lived 

 through the winter months without feeding. I have 

 also, young and old, 40 buffalo— 30 females and 10 bulls. 

 I should have this spring about 15 calves, or possibly 18. 

 They breed and thrive as well as domestic cattle. These 

 buffalo are kept in large yards during the winter months 

 and fed like domestic animals. 



"There are also in the park German hares, rabbits of all 

 kinds, the native par- 

 tridge and the Mon- 

 golian pheasant, all of 

 which are doing well." 



Included among the , 



deer are about twenty- ! 

 five biacktail, with | 

 whom the New Hamp- ! 

 shire climate seems to 

 agree. i 



Mr. Corbin has also 

 at Blue Mountain a 

 number of fine dogs, 

 including boarhounds, 

 large dogs, brown and 

 white and liver and 

 white in color, with 

 long drooping ears. 

 They are kind in dis- 

 position. In the near 

 future Mr. Corbin in- 

 tends to secure some 

 mountain sheep and 

 beaver for the pre- 

 serve, and he now has 

 seventeen European 

 red deer en route. 

 The result of intro- 

 ducing red deer among 

 the elk will be watched 

 by naturalists with in- 

 terest, as it is a well- 

 known fact that these 

 animals have been suc- 

 cessfully crossed. None 



of the animals in the park have been shot except a few 

 stag elk and some wild boars. The wild boars frequent 

 the highest parts of the mountain and are very difficult 

 to approach. 



The natural features of the park make it an ideal game 

 preserve. Blue Mountain is wooded to its summit, 2,800ft. 

 above tidewater. On its sides many springs take their 

 rise, which furnish an abundance of cold water to Sum- 

 ner's and Governor's ponds, both of which afford good 

 bass and pickerel fishing. The brooks— about forty miles 

 of them — are well stocked with trout. 



Before the inception of his Blue Mountain Forest Park, 

 Mr. Corbin had already had considerable experience with 

 deer and elk in captivity. At Babylon, L. I., he had an 

 inclosure of 130 acres, reaching to a fresh-water lake, in 

 which a number of both varieties were kept. Punning 

 through the center of this inclosure was a fence that sep- 

 arated the deer a,nd elk, as a safeguard against quarrels. 

 The deer and elk increased quite rapidly, and there are 



now some thirty of the former and twenty-five of the 

 latter. 



At Manhattan Beach Mr. Corbin had in 1892 ten sea 

 lions and a dozen seals, as well a number of elk and buf- 

 falo. There is not the slightest doubt but that the seals 

 and sea lions would have thrived in the salt-water pool 

 provided for their accommodation, but they made too 

 much noise for the comfort of the guests at the hotel, and 

 were taken away. The elk and buffalo did not thrive very 

 well, and were also taken away. When the marsh grass 

 was young they ate it and it did not agree with them, 

 and the neighborhood of the salt water was not t® their 

 liking. 



Ne-ha-sa-ne Park. 



Next to Austin Corbin's Blue Mountain Forest Park, Dr. 

 W. Seward Webb's Ne-ha-sa-ne Park bids fair to be one of 



ELK IN NE-HA-SA-NE PARK. 

 From a photograph tafeen on Christmas Day, : 



our largest game preserves. This park is in the western 

 Adirondacks, and extends twenty-four miles along the 

 line of the new Adirondack & St. Lawrence Railway. It 

 includes what is to-day probably the wildest part of New 

 York's North Woods, and is admirably adapted for stocking 

 with certain species of American big game. The native 

 deer are at p resent very abundant there and it has only 

 been a few decades since moose were also found. In fact 

 signs of a moose have been reported in Forest and Stream 

 as having been seen in that neighborhood within the last 

 few years. Of the entire park Dr. Webb has reserved about 



[BUFFALO IN BLUE MOUNTAIN FOREST PARK. 

 ^Reprinted; from; our Issue of May 2(i, 1893. 



50,000 acres for his own use, and of this about nine thous- 

 and acres at present are fenced. Into this inclosure has 

 been turned out the game mentioned in the following letters : 



New York, Dec. 21, 1893.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 I have your letter of Dec. 16, in regard to my Ne-ha-sa-ne 

 Park, and in reply would say that I have as yet turned 

 out very little foreign game. Last month, however, I 

 turned out 22 elk (10 two-year-olds and 12 three-year-olds) 

 and next week I shall turn out about a dozen more. In 

 the spring: I shall probably turn out, as an experiment, 

 about 50 English pheasants. Whether they will escape 

 the foxes and vermin is hard to say. 



At my place at Shelburne, Vermont, I have turned out 

 quail from North Carolina, and I raise about a thousand 

 English pheasants every year. I find that they winter as 

 well as our American partridge (ruffed grouse), and both 

 the pheasants and the quail have been found from thirty 

 to forty miles back in the country asd tip and down the 

 shores of the lake. W, Seward "W'ebb. 



New York, Jan. 3.— Editor Forest and Stream: For 

 your information I would say that last Saturday morning 

 I turned out 15 more wild elk, yearlings, in my park in 

 the Adirondacks. This makes 37 in all that I have turned 

 out. I have also made arrangements for 20 biacktail 

 deer and 10 moose. W. Seward Webb. 



It is hardly necessary for us to add that the press reports 

 to the effect that Dr. Webb's elk came from the National 

 Park are entirely without foundation. The elk were sold 

 by Frank D. Ball of Opal, a town in the extreme south- 

 western portion of Wyoming. 



Litchfield Park. 



Another game preserve from which interesting devel- 

 opments may be expected is that of Mr, Edward H. Litch- 

 field, near Tupper Lake. This is comparatively near Dr. 



Webb's park, and it is one of the most recent 

 enterprises in this line. Mr. Litchfield gives 

 some interesting details in the following letter: 

 New York, Jan. 5. — Editor Forest and 

 Stream: My park embraces between 8,000 and 

 9,000 acres, being the south third of Town- 

 ship 25, Franklin county, lying in the exact 

 southwest corner of Franklin county, and 

 south and east of Big Tupper Lake. I pur- 

 chased it last August. 



My intention is to create a private preserve 

 for my own use, similar to those in Scotland 

 and the Tyrol. 



I have five lakes and ponds; the largest is 

 Lake Madeleine (formerly Jenkins Pond), and 

 is two miles in length; Duck Lake, the next 

 in size, is almost as large. These lakes all 

 contain brook trout; Lake Madeleine has lake 

 trout as well. In common with most Adir- 

 ondack lakes they have been fished to death. 

 I found ice-chisels on the shores, showing 

 they had been fished through the ice, con- 

 trary to law. Inquiry developed that this 

 was customary. This practice has been stopped 

 by me as a matter of course, and the fish will 

 have a rest this winter and hereafter in close 

 season. I think it will take several years to 

 put the lakes back where they were before in 

 the matter of fish. 



My first step on taking possession was to 

 stop hounding. This created for me enemies, 

 I suppose, but I have my own convictions as 

 to the injury caused by hounding, and I pro- 

 pose to adhere to them. 

 H My intention is to stock Litchfield Park with 



exotic game. I have bought a small herd of 

 ' elk, four bulls and seven cows; they are now 



wintering at Rome, N. Y. In the spring I 

 will inclose a tract of several hundred acres 

 in the park and then turn them out there. 

 Probably more elk will be bought and added 

 to the herd, and the inclosed area will be en- 

 larged as required. From my acquaintance 

 with their habits I have every reason to 

 believe they will do well in the Adiron- 

 dacks. I have also bought some black- 

 tail deer, but I have grave doubts as to whether they 

 will thrive there. You can easily see that with such 

 game inclosed in a small park it would be folly to allow 

 hounds to run through my tract, and that I will be obliged 

 to protect my elk and deer as if they were sheep. I may 

 experiment also with birds, such as sharp-tailed grouse, 

 etc. 



I have had considerable experience in Rocky Mountain 

 hunting, as you may remember, and I have long wished 

 to introduce the elk into the Adirondacks, their ancient 

 home. The last elk was killed on or near the Saranacs 



about 1830; Drake De 

 Kay gives the exact 

 date. 



I may try breeding 

 moose, but not yet. At 

 present there are a 

 good many fur-bearing 

 animals in Litchfield 

 Park, including some 

 otter and a few bear. 

 The latter, however, 

 are migratory. Par- 

 tridges are not very 

 numerous. Black 

 ducks, sheldrake and 

 loons are to be found 

 in their season. My 

 men estimate the deer 

 (whitetail or Virginia 

 deer) to number about 

 250. I think myself 

 that this estimate is too 

 large, but that there 

 are about fifty perma- 

 nently inhabiting the 

 tract. It seems quite a 

 favorite spot fox does 

 and fawns, and this 

 again is an argument 

 against hounding. I 

 will not allow does to 

 be shot there at any 

 time or under any cir- 

 cumstances, and it 

 would be very wise to 

 enforce such a law all through the Adirondacks. 



I am credibly informed that back in St. Lawrence 

 county, where hounding is forbidden by law, deer are 

 much more numerous and much tamer than in Franklin 

 county. The law is a dead letter at the head or south end 

 of Big Tupper Lake, and hounds were started and run 

 there regularly last fall, and many deer were killed by 

 their aid within the county line. This line crosses Big 

 Tupper Lake, the southern portion being in St. Lawrence 

 county. Edward H. Litchfield. 



Brandreth Park 



Dr. Webb and Mr. Litchfield seem so be the only indi- 

 viduals in the Adirondack region at present who are at- 

 tempting to introduce exotic species of game. - Fifteen 

 years ago the Adirondack Club imported a few moose 

 from Canada, in the hope of restocking their preserve 

 with these animals, but they all died shortly _after reach' 

 ing their destination* 



