FOREST AND STREAM. ?r 
57an. ii, 1902, 
The 'New 'York" Forest 'Preserve ~! 
/-<??« Governor' O^*.* slMessa?e. 
Under Chapter 94 of the Laws of 1901 the ,«*rious com- 
missions having to do with the Forest, Fish and Game 
Departments were consolidated under one head. I be- 
came convinced after the passage of the appropriation bill 
carrying an item of $250,000 for the purchase of Adiron- 
dack land at the last session of the Legislature that the 
amount of money necessary to carry out the scheme of 
ultimate purchase of the entire preserve was of too great 
a magnitude to be hastily sanctioned. 
A bill was passed by the Legislature and approved by 
the Executive in 1893 which provided that agreements 
might be entered into between the State and owners of 
lands in the Adirondacks, limiting the kind and size of 
timber to be cut, in return for which exemption from the 
State and county taxes upon such lands was given. The 
restriction was that nothing but soft wood above 12 
inches in diameter should be cut. This provision has 
never been accepted by any considerable number of land 
owners. For_ the purpose of ascertaining the sentiment 
upon the subject communication has been had with the 
owners of the greater part of the land in the Forest Pre- 
serve. I am convinced from such correspondence that 
if the Jaw were amended to prohibit the operation of acid 
factories and the cutting of timber below 10 inches in 
diameter in return for the assumption by the State of all 
taxes, that the ultimate object aimed at in the preservation 
of the forests could be accomplished without any great 
expense. Such land now owned by individuals consists 
of about 706,514 acres of forest land, 1,080,204 acres of 
lumbered land, and 107,767 acres of denuded, burned and 
waste land. This property probably could not be pur- 
chased for less than $5,000*000. Under the provisions of 
the present law, when the State purchases the land it 
assumes all taxes. In addition to this, under our Con- 
stitution, no public land can be lumbered. If therefore 
all property now owned by individuals and corporations 
were purchased the result would be the destruction of 
the lumber and wood pulp industries, which are among 
the most valuable we have. 
The work in the Adirondacks should be pursued scien- 
tifically. Mature timber should be cut and denuded 
land, so far as possible, replanted. And if the agreement 
here outlined were entered into with individual owners 
for restriction of lumbering and the replanting of their 
lands, a continuous growth and source of supply would 
result, without fear of condemnation or encroachment. 
There would be no desire to lumber without thought of 
the future. In addition to this, by the leasing of small 
camp sites a revenue and protection would result, and 
the "Adirondacks would soon be converted into a health 
resort and a recreation park for all who might desire to 
enjoy it. Suitable restrictions providing for free ingress 
and exit could be placed in such leases. 
I recommend, first, that the present law be amended so 
as to permit an agreement with owners to restrict the 
cutting of timber down to ten inches in diameter instead 
of twelve, and that acid factories be prohibited ; and 
that a Constitutional amendment receive your sanction 
this year, looking toward the scientific forestry and leasing 
of the State lands. These suggestions, if adopted, would 
furnish revenue for the building of roads in the forests, 
and for other items of expenditure made necessary in the 
care of the preserve, and would, I am certain, bring in 
almost all of the private lands without cost to the State. 
A Deer Hunt. 
I had been hunting and trapping on the border of 
Maine and New Hampshire 'for four weeks and had had 
very good luck trapping, but had not succeeded in . get- 
ting a good shot at a deer. 
The most valuable piece of fur I shot was *-hat of a 
mountain fisher cat. I was deer hunting and was tired 
after a long walk up the steep side of Bear Mountain, 
and sat down to rest. I heard something running 
through the dry leaves, and looking up saw two very 
black animals with short ears and long tails coming to- 
ward me. After coming within a good gun shot one of 
them ran up a tree, and thinking that was my best chance 
I fired. Down he came and began clawing and biting 
everything he could get at. The other one started off 
on the run, and I fired three more shots at it, but they all 
missed. I then went up to the one I had hit and killed 
if with a revolver. 
In all the time I was there I did not carry a shotgun 
into the woods with me, as there was really only one 
animal I was after and that was a deer. The day before 
I was to come home I started out to take up my last 
fox traps. The woods were full of partridges and this once 
I thought I would take a shotgun with me, as I had given 
up all hopes of getting a deer that fall. 
I left home about three o'clock and followed an old 
logging road that ran back on to the mountain. I was 
walking along slowly when I heard a stick break in front 
of me, and looking up saw a large buck deer walking 
right down the road toward me. In an instant I stopped, 
broke down the gun, pulled out the two charges of fine 
shot and put two heavy charges of buckshot in their 
places. The deer came walking along slowly and would 
stop and browse in places where there were bushes. 
Every minute I expected he would see me and run. He 
kept coming nearer and nearer, but yet he was too far 
to risk a shot. When he was about seventy-five yards 
away I began to slowly raise the gun, when he turned 
right around so his side was toward me and I aimed and 
fired. When the smoke cleared away I saw him go tear- 
ing through the woods and noticed that one of his hind 
legs was broken, as it only dragged along on the ground 
as he ran. I went to the place where he stood when 
I fired and there I found some blood and it was all along 
his track on the snow. 
After a deer has been severely wounded, if the hunter 
starts immediately to follow it the animal will run as 
long as it has an ounce of strength, but if not further 
molested it will only go a short distance and then lie 
down. 
It was growing dark fast, as the sun sets behind the 
mountains early in the afternoon, and so after taking up 
my traps I returned home and told the folks I had de- 
gtded to stay one more (fay, J had wounded 3 <te?r 
and did not want it to die in the woods where nobody 
would get it.. 
In the morning I got up early and saw that it was 
snowing very hard. I thought I could not find the deer 
again, as the tracks were all covered up with snow. I 
went out to the place where I had fired at him and started 
in the direction he had gone. 
After going about a quarter of a mile I started hirn 
and soon came to the place where he had spent the night. 
The snow was all tramped down and covered with 
blood. He only ran a short distance and then began 
to walk, but the underbrush was so thick I could not see 
him. He soon laid down again, but started as 1 came 
up. This time I saw him, but did not get a chance to 
shoot. He would only go a short distance and then lie 
down and rest till he heard me coming, when he would 
start again. After following him this way for perhaps 
three miles the tracks suddenly stopped. They were 
very plain in the snow and came into a little opening-, 
where they ended. Going a little to one side of the trail 
I started back and only had gone a short way when I 
found some tracks going in nearly the opposite direction. 
Going back to where the tracks stopped, I found that 
the deer had walked out into this opening and had then 
made a long jump to one side over some bushes, and 
then started on the run. Deer often double on their 
tracks this way when followed, and sometimes it is almost 
impossible to find the trail again. 
I did not see the buck again until almost dark, and by 
that time we were away up on the side of ML Kearsarge. 
I heard a brook in front of me and went toward it to 
get a drink. It flowed through the bottom of a ravine, 
and as I came to the edge of the bank I looked across 
to the other side and saw the deer climbing up the steep, 
rocky slope. I rested the rifle against a tree and aiming 
at his neck about half way between the head and shoul- 
ders pulled the trigger. 
He threw up his head and fell, but the bank was so 
steep that he rolled to the bottom. 
I climbed down over the steep rocks and found him 
lying in the edge of the water. I bled him and began 
to skin him at Once, for the sun was already behind the 
mountain and I was a long way from home. 
After removing the hide I cut out the head, and taking 
that in one hand and the rifle in the other, with the skin 
over my shoulder, I started for home, but it was long 
after dark before I came out of the woods on to the 
road. Howard D. Brooks. 
Wei.le9X.ey Hills, Mass. 
Maine's Proposed License* 
Boston, Jan. 6. — Seldom has a mere proposition created 
more interest among Boston hunters and fishermen who 
go to Maine than to require non-residents to pay for a 
license to either hunt or fish in that State. While it is 
remembered that the Maine Legislature does not meet 
till next winter, the fact that the license question is to 
be discussed at the annual meeting of the Maine Fish 
and Game Protective Association this week has drawn 
out a great deal of criticism of Maine methods, as well 
as a good deal of feeling. The friends of the license 
method must remember that they are to deal with a fea- 
ture that will operate in more ways than one. Said a 
wealthy gentleman yesterday, who annually spends a 
good deal of time in Maine each year with rod and reel: 
"I hope they will make non-resident hunters and fisher- 
men buy a license, and I only wish they could make their 
own citizens pay for hunting and fishing. I shall be 
pleased if they pass a license law for sportsmen who hunt 
and fish in that State; hope that they will make it high 
enough — $10 or more — high enough to keep the ordinary 
duffers out of that State. I believe that the better class 
of sportsmen will all agree with me and be glad to buy 
licenses. It will do much for the protection of fish and 
game in that it will prevent thousands from going in to 
Maine at all, and there will be more fish and game left 
for those who buy licenses." 
This gentleman is not alone in his opinion. It is a 
fact that the cost of going into Maine on shooting and 
fishing trips is already great, compared with other out- 
ings, and that a great many are already prevented from 
going there by the cost. Then there are a great many 
who do go with whom the matter hangs in a balance, as 
it were; they go, but add the cost of a license and they 
are forever done going into Maine. The fish and game 
interest of Maine should approach this matter very care- 
fully. If those who will favor the license system at the 
association meet could spend a few hours with me in 
visiting Boston sportsmen, who are merchants, business 
and professional men, their ideas would be a. good deal 
broadened, and they would see that there is another side 
to the question. They would see that even those who 
have been in the habit of visiting that State annually for 
hunting or fishing are not obliged to go there, and that 
the matter of being obliged to pay for a license may do 
much toward deciding that they do not go there at all. 
Said a resident of Maine, who is much interested in fish 
and game and its protection, to me a short time ago: 
"Our trouble lies in the inefficiency of our commissioners 
and game wardens. Give us a set of game protectors 
who are willing to be in the woods, instead of aro.und 
the best hotels, smoking the best cigars at the State's 
expense, and we shall have money enough for fish and 
game protection in the appropriations annually made. 
If the desire is to protect big game, make a law prevent- 
ing guides from shooting such game. It is a shameful 
fact that nine-tenths of the game carried out of Maine 
by sportsmen is shot by their guides. Some of the more 
noted of these guides are simply deer slayers for the men 
who employ them. Put sportsmen on to the game they 
actually shoot themselves, and two-thirds of the game 
that would otherwise be killed each fall will be left on the 
hoof. The law now on the statute books is sufficient to 
punish these guides for shooting more than two deer in 
a season, but who enforces it? The commissioners 
know that, the most of the game killed is killed by the 
guides, guides that they have licensed, but no steps are 
taken to stop the slaughter. Sportsmen cannot be ex- 
pected to go back on the guides, for it is through the 
guides that they are all able to take out their two deer 
apiece; to brag about to their friends, and then send to 
{he nwket, ?f ft e desire is ^° pr<H e # tfc« m 
commission look out that the stripping of all the brooks, 
the trout nurseries, of small trout each spring is stopped. 
The commission has of late years closed rrfost of the 
streams flowing into the Rangeleys, Moosehead and other 
waters; closed them by edict only, for nothing is done 
to see that they are not fished; closed them against the 
honest sportsman who will not fish a closed stream; 
closed them for the dishonest guides and residents to 
strip of all the fish at the first opportunity. Maine does 
not lack in game and fish protective laws ; she does not 
lack for means with which to enforce the laws, so much 
as she lacks energy, put in the right direction, toward 
enforcement. I am not personally against a license law 
for non-resident sportsmen, for it will stop hunters and 
fishermen from coming into our State, and thus leave 
more of spoils for our own people; but it is un-American 
and not in keeping with New England ideas. If the 
railroads and other transportation companies do not fight 
a non-resident license law to the bitter end, I shall be 
much mistaken." Special. 
Slaughtering Elk for their Teeth. 
In a recent number of Forest and Stream appeared an 
article descriptive of the methods of the elk tooth hunter. 
What the hide hunter did for the buffalo can be done 
again for the elk by the tooth hunter. 
To think of this already fast-disappearing animal being 
hunted simply for the two desirable teeth in its upper 
jaw, its body to be left a prey to the coyotes upon the 
plains, is certainly a "sin and a shame." 
If there were not a market for the coveted teeth the 
elk tooth hunter might work along the line of wolf skin 
bounties, or some other meritorious occupation might 
be found by him; but as long as there is demand for 
elk's teeth as watch charms, so long will the tooth hunter 
keep at his trade. 
If I understand the situation, the members of the Order 
of Elks, a benevolent and protective order, purchase these 
teeth when made into watch charms. Now, if this is the 
market, the thing to be done is to bring argument and 
influence to bear of such a nature as to cause the demand 
to cease, and this being done, there will be just one class 
of elk hunters less in the field, and one incentive less for 
hunting this game. 
Among the readers of Forest and Stream there must 
be some, perhaps many, influential members of the "Order 
of Elks." If they would appeal to their brother sports- 
men in the order no doubt steps might be taken to dis- 
courage the use of the elk's tooth emblem by the order. 
When the demand for these teeth is such as to warrant 
the pursuit of this noble game for the sake of the two 
coveted teeth, arid the teeth only, it does seem as_ if 
some effort at least might be made to remove the incentive 
for such useless slaughter. 
Perhaps if the main lodge of the order, which I under- 
stand is in New York, were approached on the subject 
something might be done to discourage the use of this elk 
tooth emblem and thus remove at least the market for 
the man who kills the elk, and removing the two teeth 
leaves the game to rot or feed the carrion seekers, as the 
case may be. Undoubtedly thousands of men, lovers of 
"the rod and gun, are members of this organization, and 
an appeal to them may result in some general action by 
the association advising and suggesting the discontinu- 
ance of the emblem in question being used by the mem- 
bers in future. 
I think the article referred to by me noted the fact 
that the two tooth hunters had slaughtered twenty-seven 
(perhaps many more undiscovered) elk from which 
nothing had been taken but the two teeth in each case. 
When it is illegal for dealers to handle game, the occu- 
pation of the market-hunter ceases, because he cannot 
dispose of the result of his labors, and he turns to some- 
thing else for a living. Now, if to-morrow the Order of 
the Elks should bodily and individually discontinue the 
use of the elk's tooth as an emblem, the killing of elks 
would not cease, but certainly one cause or incentive for 
their wanton and wasteful destruction would be removed. 
Will not some reader of this appeal who is an Elk take 
up this matter and see what can be done to make the 
hunting of this noble game for their teeth an unremunera- 
tive occupation? Charles Cristadoro. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I noticed in the Forest and Stream for Dec. 14 that Dr. 
Doherty and his hunting companion had registered a 
complaint against some pot-hunters whom they had found 
killing all the elk for their teeth. While reading this 
account I kept wondering what these felows wanted with 
a collection of elk teeth, or why any one else would want 
them bad enough to pay two dollars apiece for them. 
The conclusion told me who needed them. Then I had 
to stop and laugh. 
A few days before this I had seen an account in a local 
paper of some more elk teeth. A member of the society 
of Elks belonging to .a lodge in Connellsville, Pa., had 
made the discovery by accident that the elk tooth that he 
had been carrying around with him as an emblem had 
never seen an elk, though it had cost him a dollar or two. 
He had let it get too near a fire, and it had gone up in 
smoke — it was only celluloid. His brother members now 
took a look at their elk teeth, only to find that they all 
had come from the same shop. 
Now, why could not this society, the B. P. O. E., adopt 
that celluloid elk tooth and let the elks take a rest, until 
some one hunts them who will use more of them than two 
teeth? These fellows that the doctor met won't need 
them then, they can reform now and go wolf hunt- 
ing; that game warden won't say a word to them if he 
catches them shooting wolves. I know it. A wolf 
hunter is not a member of the best society, even in the 
West, but he does not trot in the same class with a 
pot-hunter. I was never ashamed to be found with a 
wolf hunter as my companion. I have hunted a few 
wolves myself, but I would hate to be met in a pot- 
hunter's company. Cabia Blanco. 
Erik, Fa. 
Long Island Quail 'Weights. 
Amagansett, N. Y., Dec. 26. — I killed four quail yester- 
day, two females and two males. Three weighed 8 ounces 
each, one weighed ^Yz ounces, D, C, 
