496 
RURAL HOURS. 
here only seventy years since. Moose, stags, deer, wolves must 
have all passed over the lake every winter. To this day, the 
ice on the northern Avaters of our State is said to be strewed 
with carcasses of deer, which have been killed by the wolves. In 
former times, when the snow lay on these hills which we now 
call our own, the Indians by the lake shore must have often 
watched the wild creatures, not only moving over the ice, but 
along the hill-sides also, for at this season one can see far into the 
distant hanging woods, and a living animal of any size moving 
over the white ground, would be plainly observed. To-day the 
forests are quite deserted in winter, except where the wood-cut- 
ters are at work, or a few rabbits and squirrels are gliding over 
the snow. 
It would seem that although the wild animals found in these 
regions by the Dutch on their arrival, have been generally driven 
out of the southern and eastern counties, all the different species 
may yet be found within the limits of the present State. Their 
numbers have been ver}^ much reduced, but they have not as yet 
been entirely exterminated. The only exceptions are the Bison, 
which is credibly supposed to have existed here several centuries 
since, and perhaps the Reindeer. 
Bears were once very numerous in this part of the country, but 
they are now confined to the wilder districts. Occasionally, one 
will wander into the cultivated neighborhoods. They are still 
numerous in the hilly counties to the southward of our own, and 
they do not appear to be very soon driven away from their old 
grounds ; within forty-five years, a bear has wintered in a cave on 
a petty stream a couple of miles from the village. They retire 
with the first fall of snow, and pass three or four months in their 
