ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 
61: 
up to the very foot of the high cliffs with which 
it is surrounded. Our one landing beach was 
extraordinarily beautiful and interesting, front¬ 
ing a nesting place for hundreds of frigate-birds, 
boobies, gulls, doves and other native birds, as 
tame as we had come to expect all the creatures 
of these Islands to be. Here were also deep 
pools and wave-made wells in the rocky lava 
coast where inconceivably brilliant parrot and 
angel-fish swam in crystal clear water, and tiny 
sheltered sandy coves where families of sea-lions 
basked and played. Here we spent four un¬ 
forgettable days, working from dawn to dusk to 
learn all we could of the life of this no-man’s- 
land. 
PRESENT STATUS OF THE ADIRON¬ 
DACK BEAVERS 
E VERY four-footed wild animal species that 
exists numerously in the midst of “civiliza¬ 
tion,” but cannot be killed, sooner or later 
becomes a storm center of hostility and com¬ 
plaints. Early in the history of Harry V. 
Radford’s very spirited restocking of the 
Adirondacks with beaver, poor Harry’s proteges 
began to appear in court on charges of mis¬ 
conduct. 
At first it concerned the cutting of favorite 
trees contiguous to cherished camps. Lastly it 
has had to do with damming operations, the 
creation of ponds and the destruction of trees 
by drowning. We have read various stories of 
fringing trees around lake margins killed dead, 
at a time when (to all save the professional 
lumbermen) the cry was, “Woodman, spare 
that Tree!” 
Now, we always have declared that when a 
wild animal species becomes an unjustifiable 
and therefore unbearable nuisance to man, that 
wild animal nuisance should be abated. Pos¬ 
sibly there is one man yet living who remembers 
the origin of the wild-animal nuisance law in 
our State code of game laws. The Conservation 
Commission has the right to abate any such 
nuisance as can be demonstrated to him to re¬ 
quire abatement. 
Furthermore, the raising of beavers for their 
pelts is, to individuals, states and nations, an 
industry just as legitimate as the raising of 
Cattle for the market. The method of taking the 
annual increase is a subject for serious thought. 
