FOREST AND STHEAM. 
44 S 
The Last Adirondack Moose. 
As . stated last week, the last moose killed in the 
Adirondacks of which we have any definite account was 
taken in the summer of 1861 near Raquette or Blue Moun- 
tain Lake. The account of the killing was given in full by 
E. C. S. (Mr. Edward Clarence Smith) in Forest and 
Stream of April 2, 1874. His account was called out by 
an article published in February of that year, in which 
the writer stated his belief that "'there had not been 
one killed within the State for the last sixteen years." 
In other words, since the early part of 1858. To this 
statement Mr. Smith took exception and said: 
"iJuring the summer of 1861 a small party of Philadel- 
phians, including myself, were encamped for several days 
upon Raquette Lake in the Adirondacks. Many of your 
readers will recall the wild and picturesque stream called 
iUarion River that discharges into Raquette Lake, the 
waters of that beautiful, clear sheet of water called by 
some Lake Emmons, by others Blue Mountain Lake. It 
is a streani full of remarkable windings, a second 
Meander. We were camijing on Raquette Lake, right 
opposite the mouth of this stream, and used frequently to 
cross the lake, pass up the stream a few hundred yards 
and try for speckled trout that were wont to frequent a 
cold spring hole in the vicinity. It was almost 3 o'clock 
one afternoon of a beautiful golden day. We had been 
angling with some success, and were returning to camp 
for a late dinner. There were six persons in all, two 
boat loads. Our guides were rowing leisurely along, and 
the rest of us were enjoying the pure mountain air, the 
golden flood of sunlight, the sparkling waters, and tlie 
thousand genial sights and sounds of the grand wilder- 
ness region. We were rounding an abrupt turn in the 
river, when we suddenly caught sight of a huge beast up 
to its M-aist in the water, and feeding leisurely upon the 
hlypads. We were within a half rifle shot of it before it 
perceived us. The first boat, having no suitable weapon, 
halted. Our guide instantly seized his rifle and sprang 
to the bow. The animal turned and walked slowly toward 
the shore, the mud in which he was treading preventing 
a more rapid exit. As it turned its huge flank the guide 
leveled his rifle. The occupants of the first boat dis- 
charged their gims, loaded with bird shot, at the ears of 
the creature, with no visible effect except to provoke 
the laughter of the compa'ny. Our guide covered his 
game, but was very deliberate, waiting for a better ex- 
posure. Finally he pulled the trigger, and the beast 
dropped, quivering and dead, on the edge of the bank. 
■'It turned out to be a large cow moose. After some 
effort we got her into one of the boats, which she 
weighed down to the water's edge. We all found place 
in the remaining boat and towed the moose behind us. 
I well remember that as we began to cross the lake a 
fresh breeze prevailed, and we were threatened with quite 
a sea. However, we got safely across. The moose was 
an acceptable addition to our stock of provisions, al- 
though she was not in very good condition. 
"Yoitr contributor may therefore record that during 
the summer of i86i. a veritable female moose was shot on 
Marion River near Raquette Lake, twelve years ago last 
summer. The persons present were Isaac Gerhart, 
lawyer; Mr. Burgin, Rev. Augustus Smith, now settled 
in West Philadelphia, and the undersigned, all residents 
of Philadelphia. The guide who did the shooting was 
one Palmer, of Long Lake. An account of this was 
recorded on the travelers' book at Bartlett's on the 
Saranac, as the party went out. I have understood the 
record is still there, but that sundry envious and dis- 
appointed sportsmen have indicated their disbelief of the 
story by certain ironical and skeptical comments. Nevei-- 
theless it is a true stor}', every word of it, and if Mr. 
Lamberton will visit Philadelphia I will introduce him to 
the parties, and will show him a bone taken from the 
foreleg of the beast." 
When Dr. C. Hart Merriam was writing his work o-n 
"The Vertebrates of the Adirondack Region," which was 
IMiblished by the Linntean Society of New York, in 
October, 1882, he made further investigation of this oc- 
currence, and had some correspondence on the subject 
with Mr. Smith, who addressed a letter of inquiry to 
Isaac Gerhart, Esq., who was of the party. The reply 
showing how another individual saw and remembered the 
incident is published on page 141 of "The Mammals of 
the Adirondack Region" (New York, 1884). Mr, Ger- 
hart says: 
'T should say the moose was shot about the end of the 
second week in August. 1861, at the mouth of the East 
Inlet of Raquette Lake, on whose shore, about four miles 
distant, we then had a camp. We had been up this inlet — 
your correspondent calls it Marion River, a name I can- 
not recall— for *a day's trout fishing. You and your 
brother (Rev. H. -Augustus Smith) and guide were in one 
boat: Burgin, a guide, and I in another. We as usual, 
'though on fishing bent,' still had our trusty guns, lest 
some chance game should find us unprepared. At its 
mouth the inlet was bordered on either hand by a thickly 
wooded shore, terminating on the south side in a short 
promontorv, round the end of which a sloping shore 
curved off to the southwest. Off this shore grew in the 
water a border of lilypads. perhaps a hundred feet wide, 
and about half as far from the edge of the water the shore 
became bold and thickly wooded. We were rowing 
sttadily doM'n, the bottoms of ottr boats covered with 
iinny spoils. T wa.? in the bow of the foremost boat, when 
as we came abreast of the end of the promontory I 
caught sight, of the monster up to her belly in water 
cropping the tender lily shoots. 1 shall never forget the 
eoniu^ing imprc.'^sion the sight made upon me. In my 
muv\ the moose was always associated with imposing 
ardervS, such a.s I had seen in the pictured and stuffed 
hpecnnens, which had all been males; but this uncouth 
creature had only immen.se ears, which, though its head 
was below tlie humped shoulders, still towered above 
them. I "felt that it must be game because of the com- 
plete wildness of the surroundings; and yet it seemed so 
suggestive of an exaggerated caricature of a jackass that 
tlie idea passed across my mind that there might be some 
clearing in the neighborhood to which it belonged. I 
do not think my guide's impressions were any more 
Goherwn thap mine, for although he was a year or two 
past- his majority and had been born and bred in the 
woods he had nei er seen a moose. Meanwhile, ps-ofiting 
by our confusion of ideas, Madame Moose had' 'slewed 
around' in the water, with a view to making for the 
friendly shelter of the woods, when your boat came within 
view of the creature, and your guide shouted 'Moose! 
MooseJ' which had the efifect of clearing up my ideas in- 
stantaneously. In the twinkling of an eye I had lodged in 
front of her slioulder the contents of my gun — not 'bird 
shot,' as you suggest, but 'buck cartridge,' consisting of 
over a dozen buckshot inclosed in a wire frame, makiii!? 
a load that 'carried' very closely, and made a hole in her 
at that short range of not over So yards that would doubt- 
less, after one of those long runs for which these animals 
are famous when fatally wounded, have ended her career. 
My shot lent impetus to her progress toward shore. 
Then Burgin fired some shot (I think No. 6) into her 
and she emerged from the water. The two guides, first 
ours and then yours, each put a rifle ball into her, and 
she fell heavily, to rise no more. She doubtless had a 
spouse somewhere in the neighborhood, for a party who 
had been after her for a week had killed a moose calf near 
by that was too young to have left its parents and 
claimed to have found tracks of both the old ones. We 
lived on her tenderloin — after getting her to camp under 
great diliiculties — for about a week. 
"On our way out of the region, whence we made our 
exit at the First Saranac Lake, we stopped at Bartlett's 
on Round Lake, which appeared to be a famous and ex- 
tensive rendezvous for hunters and guides; and on the 
register there we recorded conspicuously opposite our 
names our notable, albeit fortuitous, achievement. I 
think we recorded it as weighing about 800 pounds, and 
standing about 7 feet high in the hump. The derisive in- 
credulity which this entry evoked was only silenced by 
the production of the hide, which we had brought with 
US. 
Records of moose in the Adirondacks during the few 
years last preceding this capture are not wanting, and 
from a mass of evidence which is uncertain or traditional. 
Dr. Merriam gives the following occurrences as well es- 
tablished: 
The Constable brothers killed their last moose in 1856 
west of Charley's Pond, in Hamilton county. 
A moose was killed at or near Mud Lake in the lower 
Saranac region in 1856. This may be the one recently 
referred to in Forest and Stream. In the same year 
Ed Arnold killed a moose at Nick's Lake, and the next 
spring a man named Baker killed another in the same 
neighborhood. 
In July, 1861, Mr. A. F. Tait, the artist, and Mr. Jas. 
B. Blossom each shot at moose at Raquette Lake, Mr. 
Tait wounding his, which was later killed by Wm. Wood, 
and Mr. Blossom killing his, a dry cow, on the South 
Inlet of Raquette Lake. 
An attempt to reintroduce the moose was made by the 
Adirondack Club quite a good many years ago, but the 
animals died. Later Mr. W. Seward Webb turned out 
moose in some numbers on his preserve in the Adiron- 
dacks. These animals are tinderstood to have increased, 
but not to such an extent as to be satisfactory to the 
owners of the preserve. 
In the Corbin game park in New Hampshire, however, 
it is understood that moose have done very well, and 
have increased so that the preserve is fairly well stocked. 
The Wood Bison. 
BY J. A. ALLEN. 
From the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 
The Museum has recently obtained a head (skull and 
unmounted head skin) of the wood bison, taken by In- 
dians near Great Slave Lake. The exact point is not 
known, but it is evidently a freshly killed specimen, and 
is in excellent condition. It is a young male, probably 
abotit four years old, the second upper molar being 
wholly unworn, and the third molar not having yet 
broken through its alveolus. Compared with specimens 
of the plains bison (Bison bison) of corresponding age. 
it is rather above the average size of the latter, with the 
base of the horn cores relatively thicker. The head 
skin has the whole pelage darker, softer and more silky 
than the bison of the plains, this specimen agreeing in 
this respect with several mounted heads of the wood 
bison I have seen in the possession of dealers within the 
last few years. 
The present specimen confirms, as far as it goes, the 
characters recently assigned to the wood bison by Mr. 
S. N. Rhoads (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1897, P- 
488), and quite warrant its recognition under the name 
Bison bison athabascte, applied to it by Mr. Rhoads. 
Formerly it doubtless completely intergraded with the 
southern form. Now that it is on the point of extinc- 
tion, the following summary of its recent decadence may 
not be without interest. 
As i.-i well known, the American bison formerly ranged 
continuously from the northern boundary of the United 
States northward over the Sasketchewan plains to- the 
region about Great Slave Lake, in latitude 60° iiorth, 
and even, according to Richardson^, "to the vicinity of 
Great Marten Lake, in latitude 63° or 64°-" Their range 
in the north, as well as in the south, gradually became 
more and more restricted, the last remnants consisting 
of only a few widely separated bands. 
There is abundant historic evidence to show that the 
wood bison formerly ranged from the Liard River, in 
latitude 60", eastward to the eastern end of Great Slave 
Lake, and from the district just northwest of Great 
Slave Lake southward, including the half-open countrj' 
on both sides of Great Slave River, to the western end 
of Lake Athabasca, and westward to the east base of 
the Rocky Mountains! On my raap", intended to show 
the approximate range of the bison in 1875, its northern 
limit is given as not extending much beyond Peace 
River, while in 1889 Mr. Hornaday gave its supposed 
area as a very limited district, wholly to the south of 
Peace River.^ It is quite probable that both maps were 
in this respect erroneous. Mr. Hornaday's plotting of 
iFauna Bor-Am.. I., 1829, p. 279. ^ , ^ 
-The American Bison, Living and t.\tmct. Mem. Geol. burv. 
Kentucky, Vol. I., Part ii., Is76, and Mem. Mus. Comp. Zool., 
Vol. IV.. No. 10, 1876. „ „ . , . ,T c 
»The Extermination of the American Bison. Report of the U. S>. 
Nat. Mwi„ 1886-87 <1889). pp. 899'648, pU. i.-xxii, 
this portion of his map was doubtless based on Prof. 
John Macoun's statement in his "Manitoba and the 
Great Northwest," published in 1883, in which he says 
(p- 342): "In the winter of 1870 the last buffalo were 
killed north of Peace River ; but in 1875 about ' one 
thousand were still in existence between the Athabasca 
and Peace rivers, north of Little Slave River." 
According to Warburton Pike*, in 1890 "a few bands 
of buffalo" were scattered over a considerable area of 
country between the Liard River and Great Slave Lake, 
and thence south to Peace River. "Sometimes." he 
says, ''they are heard of at Forts Smith and Vermilion, 
sometimes at Fort St. John close up to the big moun- 
tains on Peace River, and occasionally at Fort Nelson 
on the south branch of the Liard. It is impossible to 
say anything about their numbers, as the country thev 
inhabit is so large, and the Indians, who are few in 
number, usually keep to the same hunting ground." The 
site of his own successful hunt for these animals, in Feb- 
ruary, 1890, was on a tributary of Buffalo River, about 
fifty miles south of its entrance into Great Slave Lake, 
It was near this point that Frank Russell hunted 
them in 1894, with the same Indian guide, but without 
success. He says: "At the end of the fourth day [from 
Fort Resolution] we reached the northern limit of the 
buffalo range, perhaps fifty miles south of the Great 
Slave Lake." Owing to stormy weather, Mr. Russell 
failed to reach the herd, being compelled to turn back 
without seeing a single bison. Concerning their num- 
bers, haunts and prospects he writes as follows": 
"The herd at present consists of a few hundred only. 
TThey are so wary that but one effective shot can be 
fired, when they betake themselves to instant flight, and, 
as with the moose, pursuit is altogether futile. They 
cannot be hunted in summer, as the country which they 
inhabit is an impenetrable, mosquito-infested, wooded 
swamp at that season. * * * They^ can only be killed 
by stalking in midwinter, when their pelage is at its 
best. * * * 
"The Indians along the Peace and Slave rivers make 
occasional trips into the buffalo country with dog teams 
to establish lines of marten traps. When they discover 
a band of buffaloes they of course kill as many as they 
can, but they have not made systematic efforts to hum 
them for their robes, as they have the musk-ox. For- 
tunately, the officers of the company have exerted their 
influence toward the preservation of the buffalo, not trad- 
ing for the robes, until the recent advent of rival traders. 
During the winter of 1892-3 forty buffaloes were killed, 
the largest number that had been secured for several 
years. I saw most of these robes, which were very dark, 
the hair thick and curled, making a robe superior to that 
of either musk-ox or plains buffalo; they were so large 
that the Indians had cut many of them in halves for 
convenience in hauling on the sleds. 
"From 20 to 100 MB [$io to $50] are paid for the 
robes. The traders are trying to induce the Indians to 
preserve them as mountable skins. 
'"The northern limit of the range of the buffalo, as 
given by Mackenzie, was the Horn Mountains, north 
of the Little Lake. Pere Ruore, of the Saint Michael 
Mission, at Rae, who has crossed the Rae- Providence 
traverse several times, assured me that he had seen 
buffalo skulls on the prairies which lie within fifty miles 
of Providence, northwest of the western end of the Gr.eat 
Slave Lake. I saw no remains of buffaloes when I 
crossed these praries in December, owing to the snow, 
but the country is similar to that south of the lake, where 
they are still found. 
"Black Head, an old Yellow Knife chief, living at the 
mouth of the Riviere au Jean, told me that he had killed 
■plenty of buffaloes" in the delta of the Slave River. About 
fifteen years ago a few were killed near Liard, but they 
are seldom seen in that quarter. They formerly fre- 
quented the 'Salt Plains,' forty miles northeast of Fort 
Smith. Franklin's party killed a buffalo in that vicimty 
at the time of their visit in I820^ Richardson states , tSat 
in 1848 there was an abundance of deer and bHff^o iijeat 
obtainable on the Salt Plains^" " \V , 
Still later information is furnished by Thomas, Jo|i)i- 
son, in a quotation from the report of Game Inspector 
Jarvis to the Canadian Government, published in FOR- 
KST .pD Stream for Oct. 23, 1897 (Vol, XLIX., p. 323). 
His inspection of the region embracing the present range 
of the bison was made in 1897, and in his report he says: 
"L have taken great pains in making as thorough in- 
quiries as possible in connection with the buffalo, their 
habits, nurnber and range. The range of a scattered 
band of about 300 is from Peace Point to Salt River, and 
from Salt River to within twenty miles of Fort Resolu- 
tion, on Great Slave Lake. I met a Mr. Handbury, an 
English sportsman, who is on a hunting expedition. 
He had just returned from an unsuccessful buffalo hunt, 
but be saw fresh tracks and beds of about sixty buffalo. 
Mr. Handbury returns this year, but the fear of a $200 
fine will hardly prevent his hunt. * * * If it be the 
iiitention of the Government to protect these nearly ex- 
tinct animals, it can only be done by placing officials on 
the spot. I have in the case of buffalo and other game 
impressed on all hunters and other interested persons 
the necessity of obeying the game act, and have left 
printed notices where practicable." 
Mr. Rhoads, in his "Notes on Living and Extinct 
Species of North American Bovidse" (Proc. Acad. Nat. 
Sci., Philadelphia, 1897. P- 497). published a letter from 
Mr. H. 1. Moberly. of the Hudson Bay Co., dated Nov. 
9, i8q7, in which Mr. Moberly states: "They lived for- 
merly from the beginning of the wooded country north 
of the Saskatchewan to Great Slave Lake, and further 
north along the east slope of the Rocky Mountains. At 
present there are not more than two hundred and fifty 
to three hunxired alive, and they are in two bands, one 
on the lower Peace River, north of it. and run from 
close to Great Slave Lake at Peace Point, which is 
some ninet}' miles below Fort Vermilion. The other 
is on the upper Hay River and ranges between Peace 
River and Liard River, and runs down some two hundred 
and fifty miles east of the Rocky Mountains and up to 
the foot of the Rocky Mountains." 
This brings the history down to Mr. Stone's report, pub- 
*Barren Ground of Northern Canada, 1893, p. 143. 
"Explorations in the Far North, 1898, pp. 231, 232. 
■'Sir John Franklin. Narrative, 0. 177. 
^Arctic S«arcbiAg Expedition, p. 149. 
