EXPERIMENT IN ANIMAL PRESERVATION 175 
Large as the area is at their disposal, the space 
required by wild animals is far larger than that which 
suffices for domestic creatures. The three acres of 
good land which is supposed to suffice for the poor 
man’s cow, expands to twenty-five acres of the best 
deer-forest as the yearly keep of a single stag ; and, 
setting the increased size of bison, moose, and wapiti 
against the better pasturage of the New Hampshire 
hills, it is probable that the proportion of game to 
acreage in Corbin Park cannot safely be increased 
beyond the limits which experience shows to be 
necessary in the forest of Blair Athole. Two of the 
species, the moose and the beaver, live entirely on 
the branches of trees. The beavers are far more 
destructive than the moose, and will soon level all 
the timber near the streams. A single family in the 
Island of Bute cut down one hundred and eighty- 
seven large trees in ten years, and it is not likely that 
they will be less industrious in what was once their 
native home. Twenty thousand hawthorn-trees have 
been imported from England to be planted, not as a 
vast and beautiful feature in the landscape of the 
park, an experiment well worthy of the author of the 
enterprise, but as a hedge to take the place of the wire 
fencing which now surrounds the enclosure. The 
beavers will soon convey the thorn-trees to their 
“ lodges,” and make an easy road for the escape of 
the rest of the colony. 
Nothing is said of the removal of human occupiers 
from this area, though it seems improbable that such 
