116 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Feb. II, 1903, 
twenty-five to fifty. Gn a preserve of about tS.ooo acres 
this is certainly a large number. In the same region, 
near the edge of the burned district, in Township 20, 
adjoining the Pruyn preserve, Mr. John Anderson, of 
Newconib, reports that quite a number of dead deer 
have been found. Mr. A. J. Chase, also of Newcomb, 
says that he hears that twelve to fifteen have been found 
in the Tahawus Club grounds. He expresses the 
opinion that the mortality has been exaggerated and that 
we will find that there are plenty next fall. Mr. David 
Hunter, Tahawus, thinks the condition of deer about 
medium. He knows of fifteen being winter-killed and 
thinks that there are probably many more. 
As to the rest of Essex county, reports appear to 
be quite different. Mr. H. G. Alford, of Newman, m 
the town of North Elba, Essex county, says that re- 
ports from the district bounded by Newcomb on the 
south, Long Lake on the west, Saranac River on the 
north and Lake Champlain on the east, show that not 
a single carcass has been found. Since the Pruyn pre- 
serve is in the southwest portion of this district, this 
report is manifestly not literally true, but is probably 
approximately so for the rest of the region. Mr. B, 
R. Brewster, also of Newman, says that he has been in 
the woods himself and does not think that any dead 
deer have been found in Essex county. Mr. David G. 
Helms, Long Lake, knows of only two dead deer 
being found, and thinks that they wintered very well. 
Mr. John Shandrow, Blue Ridge, Town of North 
Hudson, Essex county, saw one carcass in February, 
near Lake Henderson, but thinks that the deer wintered 
as usual. Hon. George A. Stevens, Lake Placid, Essex 
county, says that he has been in the woods a great 
deal this winter, having two lines of sable traps, one 
fifteen and the other twelve miles long. He saw many 
signs of living deer, but not a single dead one. He 
says "the deer have not sufifered much in this section. 
My information is from actual travel in the' woods." 
This evidence is much more reliable than what some 
one has heard that some one else told his informant. 
If the above information is correct, it is clear that 
most of the deaths in this region were in two preserves, 
that of the Tahawus Club and Mr. Pruyn's. In this 
connection it is interesting to note the reports from 
other preserves. Byron P. Ames, of Ne-ha-sa-ne Park, 
Dr. Seward Webb's preserve, says "we found thirty 
dead deer in the park. Much ground was burned over 
last year and destroyed their food. Six of us went 
through the woods and lopped down small trees; 
otherwise many more would have died." Hon. Warren 
Higley, president of the Adirondack League Club, 
whose preserve covers 67,000 acres, writes that five 
dead deer were found in the Little Moose district; and 
seven in the Bisby district. As to the Honnedaga dis- 
trict, Mr. Nelson and his son, on March 13, 14 and 
15, went through the north part of Township 5, Yule 
Brook, Cobble Stone Creek and headwaters of the 
Indian River, info Township 8 and back through Town- 
ship 7 to Forest Lodge, without finding a single dead 
deer. "There were hundreds wintering in this locality 
in fine condition, more around Honnedaga Lake than 
have ever been known before." In two districts of 
this preserve there appears to have been a considerable 
mortality; in the third district none at all. In the 
one watershed the mortality was considerable, on the 
other practically nothing at all. Mr. E. H. Johnson, 
superintendent of the Whitney preserve of S9,ooo acres, 
writes that they have found a great many dead deer 
in this preserve, mostly young ones and old bucks. 
They seem to have died mostly where they had to eat 
balsam. They just seem to curl up and freeze to death. 
We found a number with their ears frozen. "I con- 
sider the mortality due entirely to the severe winter." 
Mr. E. LeBoeuf, of Faust, reports that many died on 
.the Kildare preserve.* Mr. W. Scott Brown, super- 
intendent of the Adirondack Mountain Reserve, 
Beede's, Essex county, reports only two dead deer 
found in their preserve. This is the only exception 
as to the preserves from which we have iTad reports. 
As I understand the matter, your attention was called 
to this subject this year by the reported great mor- 
tality in the Moose River region, a considerable part 
of which lies in the Adirondack Club preserve, though 
the waters drain a region some miles to the north 
of it. 
There is no evidence of any unusual mortality in any 
other part of the Adirondack region. In many regions 
the number of living deer, in excellent condition, is 
reported as unusually large. 
In conclusion we regret to be forced to admit that 
we have been unable to satisfactorily account for the 
unusual mortality in the Moose River region, which, 
by the way, is not limited to this past winter, but oc- 
curred in the winter of 1894-5, and probably in other 
seasons as well. The snow was deeper than in many 
other places; but the weather was no colder than 
elsewhere; flukes are no more common than elsewhere. 
The stomachs of the deer that we examined were full 
of food; they did not die of thirst; and there was no 
infectious disease among them. That there may be 
some local cause seems possible. It cannot be the air, 
or the water. It is possible that the food may in some 
way be improper, and I would suggest that, if the mor- 
tality is repeated another year, investigation be di- 
rected particularly in this direction. 
Undoubtedly the snow was deeper in the Moose 
River region, where most of the deaths occurred, than 
in other parts of the Adirondaeks, and lasted longer. 
Senator Douglas informs me that his lumber com- 
pany, at McECeever, had to spend several thousand 
dollars more than usual in keeping their lumber roads 
in proper condition; that it commenced to snow in the 
latter part of November, and that more or less fell 
alnu)St every day until March. 
The most plausible theory that I have ever heard to 
" connect the mortality of deer with deep, snow and pro- 
tracted, severe, cold weather, is that advancec by David 
Ciiarbonheau, a guide, at Old Forge. He says that 
after the disappearance of their summer food, the deer 
are in the habit of subsisting on the roots of the brakes 
and tlig ^fgrpund hemlock' ~a variety of yew; thai 
^nif. Willism Boyw. Saranae Inn, writsg thst Mr, Beclford, 
superiatfindenr pf Mr. ?.?5akefe!!«!r s prgfcm, rejjsrt^ mt 'tv^mtY 
dead deerfjsve fetftp IsusJiJ- fM titgt ptmm, lUj^mi m IhinK--'. 
this is nutritious food for them; that to get at these 
two articles of diet, they habitually paw away the snow 
until it gets too deep; that finally they begin to con- 
sume the boughs of the evergreen trees only as a last 
resort; that the boughs are a poor kind 01 food, es- 
pecially poor in heat-producing power; that the deer 
get along on them' 'in ordinary winters for three or four 
weeks very weh; but that when obliged to subsist on 
boughs alone for five, or six, or eight weeks ot very 
severe weather, numbers of them succumb not to star- 
vation alone, but to the combined effect of starvation 
and cold. They may be found frozen to death with 
their stomachs full of this unnutritious food. This 
theory would account for the four deer which we ex- 
amined, and is the only one so far advanced that would. 
Samuel B. Ward. 
Deer Hunting in Wisconsin. 
( Concluded from last week.) 
Saturday morning the weather was fine, but the ground 
was dry and noisy. Journay went off north, and Hedrick, 
Doc and I started southwest down the old railroad bed, 
leaving Spahr and Bender yet at camp, though Bender 
was getting ready to cross the creek and go down the 
wagon road toward Big St. Germain Lake. Hedrick 
went on to Bass Lake at the west end of the wooded 
hill, the Doctor climbed up the big hill to the left, while 
I left the railroad bed and followed an old swamp road 
to the left of the hill and bordering the creek. As the old 
road approaches the east side of the hill it is lined with 
small trees and thicket, the brush standing so thick and 
rugged as to offer a formidable barrier to any animal 
as large as a man or deer. Beyond this the timber was 
cut clean at some time between the months of November, 
1902 and 1903, from the top of the hill to the creek. It 
was one of the finest bunches of young pine I ever saw. 
Just before I reached this chopping, a large buck jumped 
across in front of me and stopped behind a clump of 
small trees and brush, headed toward the hill. I could 
see his nose and the outline of his back, but hesitated to 
shoot at either. The second thought was that he would 
turn and run straight away, keeping the obstruction be- 
tween us, so I .sent a ball into the brush at the chance 
of hitting him through the body. Now here was a case 
where I didn't care to be bothered with another deer, 
for I might have gotten another shot at the buck before 
he got away; but when I shot there was a ripping noise 
back and to the left of me, and there, not over twenty- 
five feet distant, was a doe going at top speed through 
the thick brush. As she dashed into the old road about 
fifty feet distant, my finger touched the trigger, but as 
luck would have it, not hard enough, for she swerved to 
the right up the road, then turned into the brush on the 
left. Now or never, I thought, and drew on a small 
opening only a few inches wide and pulled the trigger, 
just as her fore parts came in view. She was gone. I 
turned to run up the hill overlooking the swamp, and 
then saw my buck make a couple of jumps on the top of 
the hill, going north toward the Doctor. Knowing I 
could not make the situation any worse, I hallooed to the 
Doctor to look out, and ran on as fast as I could. Be- 
fore I got where I could see what was doing on the hill 
top, I heard the Doctor shoot three times, and when I 
got in speaking distance asked him what he shot at. He 
answered, "A deer." I asked, "Which deer?" He said 
"A doe." I said, "There is a big buck on the hill east 
from you." Then the situation was interesting. Bender 
was standing by the tent looking my way, and I called to 
him to come up, but he turned and went off across the 
creek. I had been listening for Hedrick's gun, for the 
buck could not get through between Doc and I and the 
lake without going near Hedrick ; but presently I saw 
Hedrick going eastward, and I 'went up that way also to 
see what had become of the buck. Then we heard Bender 
shoot down the road east of the creek, and he told us 
later that a buck came out of the timber near the creek, 
and at his shot turned and ran into the timber again. 
But I am sure it was not my buck, for his tracks led over 
the south point of the hill, then down to the edge of 
Bass Lake, and along the shore back of Hedrick as he 
came up toward the Doctor, then off west after the doe. 
I trailed him to the wagon road a half mile to the west, 
and he made squirrel tracks all the way, but I could not 
follow him further through the undergrowth that covered 
the hillside. I think I shot him through the body. The 
Doctor said the doe was wounded, and I had him direct 
me to where he saw her last. Sure enough, she had 
slipped and smeared a pole with blood. But she only 
bled occasionally, and it was the hardest kind of trailing 
to follow her along an old grass-grown path, zig-zagging, 
short-circuiting, - side-stepping, and all other tricks a 
wounded deer could resort to. There was very little 
moisture to cause one track to look fresher than another, 
and there was scarcely half the time the tracks showed 
through the weeds, grass, leaves and twigs covering the 
ground, but we found her. She had left a bloody trail 
at the foot of the hill, and the Doctor laid no claim to 
the hide, for the only bullet bark was one at the left of 
the tail, which angled and lodged in front of the right 
hip. This showed the direction she was going from me, 
and something of the speed, for I aimed at her foreparts. 
For years I have tried to shoot in front of deer that were 
running broadside, but would forget now and then until 
too late. I am satisfied that more shots at deer in that 
position go behind than over them. 
The 20th was Sabbath, but while loitering about camp 
I was tempted to bait a hook and cast it into the pool 
near camp. I stood around watching the cork float this 
way and that as it was caught in the ebb and flow, and 
tiring finally drew the line out of the water. Hedrick 
had said there were no fish in the pool. He had tried it, 
so had I, last year and the year before, but only with 
meat bait, as I v/as doing now. What was my surprise, 
when the bait neared the surface, to see a large fish fol- 
lowing it. He came on and snapped at the bait as it left 
the water, then turned on his side, righted himself, and 
deliberately disappeared. Hedrick and I tried our flip- 
japks, but got no bite. Monday I got a dead minnow 
from a pool back of the tent, where some hunters had 
been shooting them for bait, and with that I caught a 
wall-eyed pikg that measwred inches by the tape line, 
Th? Vit%i day Hedrick sn4 the Doctor tried It, and thf 
Isttir wttt» > live min|fiw tbst U sw^sided In m\\\m 
^HpM *ii#fer pjte- %n U% mi ^ %m 
made a good dinner for our party of six. The weathe 
changed to winter, and the following day I went tc 
Sayner post-office. Mr. S. had gone to the station witli 
the mail and sent back word that a large buck was be? 
tvveen the house and station. His sons ran up the roaci 
wiih their guns, but when coming out I saw the buck's 
tracks in the wagon road. He had simplv slipped off t(i 
the east and escaped, that was all. On neanng camp j 
saw Bender and Spahr, and learned that two deer ha( 
crossed the road a short time before, but none of us sav 
the deer. 
Wednesday Spahr and Journay each shot a rabbit, 
had murdered one the day previous in trying to shoot i 
in the swamp near camp with .38 shot shells. They ar 
no good when shot from a rifle. They will do all righ 
to miss with, and they will lead the gun ; that's about ali 
Thursday, the 24th, there was a light tracking snow 
The Doctor stayed in camp. The other boys went wes 
while I crossed the creek and followed the Eagle Rive 
road to the east of Big St. Germain Lake. Here I wen 
east, crossing a fresh buck track not far from the lake; 
and climbed the hills. Presently large, damp flakes oi 
snow began to fall, and I climbed up an elevation tha 
gave me a good view and sat down on a log with m 
back to a blackened stub. Here, then, was Kipling' 
"blackened timber," but it was not very interesting ex 
cept by contrast with the "beautiful," which continue- 
to fall in unceasing quantity. The burned-over hills be 
fore me resemble in contour huge potatoes with sprout 
covering their surface, while the stillness, unbroken b 
vcice or flutter of wing, became oppressive. I got uj 
shook the snow from my shoulders, and sought shelte 
in the green woods, where I regaled myself with a sand 
wich of bread, fried mush and bacon, then continue 
my tramp northward, finally circling toward camp, whic 
I reached about i P. M., having covered about ten mile 
without seeing any game. 'I he bean soup tasted bette 
than any other meal I had eaten in camp, and I lighted 
cigar and sat up to the heating stove while the sno^ 
turned to rain and rattled on the tent overhead. M 
note-book reads : "I am sore and tired. My left eye ha 
cold in it, my nose is sore; I have rheumatism in m 
right arm, and don't feel good generally." 
On the 24th there was a light tracking snow, and w 
did considerable trailing the remainder of the week, bi 
got no game except— yes, except — a couple of rabbits 
and I doiibt if a very large per cent, of the patrons c 
this paper know how cute these little game birds ar- 
On Saturday I was coming back from a tramp that 1' ^ 
extended across Plum Creek or Glen Brook, as it 
named, and in the heaviest timber met a rabbit. The 
is, the rabbit had been going westward and I was goin 
eastward. "Now," I said, "I will just pick that felloi 
up. He hasn't gone far." So I turned about, althoug. 
I was tired and a mile and a half from camp, and fo: 
lowed the trail, under fallen trees, around logs, an 
sometimes over them. Once or twice he had danced a ji 
or some other figure, and here I had to circle his pla) 
ground to find the trail, then follow the long leaps c 
ten to fifteen feet for a couple of hundred yards agaii 
Finally he passed within thirty feet of a large tree x\vc 
was blown up by its roots and fallen northeastwarc 
Here the rabbit turned to the northwest, toward tw 
fallen trees that lay with the tops to the east, and ju; 
touching the top of the first named tree. The rabb 
crawled under the first log, then hopped along betwee 
them nearly to the first-named .log, then with extra Ion 
jump, and lighting with feet all in a bunch, he hiked bac 
southwest to the roots of the first-named tree, and wit 
a long side jump landed on the old root and bunche: 
himself up in as small space as possible on one larg 
root and under another, and about three feet abo\ 
ground. 
When T found him I was about fifteen feet from bin 
and instead of blowing his head off with my .38 rifle, 
pulled my little .32 Smith & Wesson revolver, at th 
crack of which he went off like a streak some thirl 
steps, jumped up on a small log, then tumbled off dea( 
Monday the 28th was a stormy day. I stayed in an 
"took stock," which showed half a dozen large potatoe 
about three pounds of meal, two pounds cf flour, a rati 
of bacon, a bit of tea, coffee, butter, five loaves of brea 
and a little canned goods. Bender came in at 10 A. M 
Hedrick about 11. Spahr, Journay and the Doctor, afte 
following a doe all over the green woods east of the bi' 
swamp, left her east of Big St. Germain Lake and can: 
to camp at noon, covered with snow and ice. After dir, 
ner I went out to Sayner for our mail, and to the static 
at 4:45 P. M. and interviewed the express messengt 
on the train as to bringing deer out of the State aftt 
November 30. While I was tarrying at Sayner's, the 
shewed me some fine photos, among which was one of , 
maskinonge caught from a small lake some five rnih: 
distant. They said this fish weighed 51 pounds whe^ 
caught. While going out to the station with Mr. Sayner 
small boy, he pointed to a small shelter made by leanin; 
poles together in tepee fashion, and told me the startlin* 
tale that the buck that I heretofore mentioned had hidde 
in and been chased out of that lean-to. We passed 
tiny school house, and in response to my inquiry, Mas 
Sayner said there were ten pupils now, but after cj 
hunting season there would be about sixteen. I thougi 
of my first school when I was yet eighteen and thei 
were nearly fifty pupils, and there was woods near, ar 
some wild turkeys and foxes. And on Xmas the b 
boys (there were eleven pupils as old as I was) ihrea 
ened to duck me in a pond if I did not treat them wit: 
candy. : 
By the time we reached the station my gun and clolhi 
were covered with a sheet of ice from frozen rain lli 
fell thick and fast. It was dark before I reached cant 
though helped on my way by some settlers driving '■- 
good road team to a spring wagon. Daylight came abo' 
7:30 the 29th. and we got ready for business. I wei; 
back up the Sayner road to the green woods, and he 
was tempted by two rabbits that hati patted the sno" 
dow-n under the shelter of the jack pine. I foimd the 
runway, and affer. circling the end of one's trail, wal 
ing within ten feet of him sitting under the tips of t 
small limb of a fallen sapling, T saw his dark eye shinii<| 
by contrast with his nearly white coat and the snow. Cj 
course I got that- rsbbit; but the other ong was lil 
Bsnquo's ghost* When I turned toward camp I did 
g& im m\\\ X fewad wpell m thf; tracks of twe 
