CARIACUS VIRGIN! ANUS. 
39 
heretofore sufficed to enable this animal to hold its own, will soon 
prove inadequate. Therefore, the subject of Deer Protection 
becomes one that claims earnest and thoughtful consideration from 
our sportsmen and hunters, and demands intelligent and judicious 
legislation. 
The present law was a fairly good one at the time of its enact- 
ment, but it has ceased to meet existing conditions ; that it will 
prove ineffectual against the demands of the rapidly increasing 
occupancy and destruction of the forests, requires no great per- 
spicacity to foretell. 
There are two weak points in the law as it now stands : ist, 
the open season is too long by at least a month ; and 2d, there is 
no limit put to the number of Deer that a party, or an individual, 
may kill during this period. The season begins with the month 
of August, and when the weather is propitious more than a hun- 
dred boats are nightly engaged in floating , on the various water- 
courses of the Adirondacks. Now it is an undisputed fact that, 
by this method of hunting, more than twice as many does as bucks 
are killed, and that a large percentage of those fired at are wounded, 
and escape into the woods to die. It is also a fact that, as a rule, 
each doe has two fawns, and that fawns deprived of their mother’s 
milk before the first of September usually die. Hence the ap- 
palling truth becomes apparent, that for every twenty-five Deer 
secured by floating, at least fifty (and probably a much larger 
number) must be destroyed ! Therefore it seems proper that 
the season should not open before the first of September. The 
second weak point in the law is also a vital one. It is notorious 
that during the past two years many hundreds of Deer have been 
slaughtered over and above the number necessary to keep the 
parties killing them supplied with venison. In parts of Canada, 
and in the State of Maine, the law sets a limit to the number of 
moose, caribou, and Deer that may be killed by an individual or 
camp during a given period, and I see no reason why a similar 
