82 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Jan. 17, 1914 
part I could hardly call it sport, and one could do 
killing just as well by going and joining the work 
on some poultry farm when they were catching 
and killing chickens. I saw the process once on 
an Arizona ranch. The men were using what ap¬ 
peared to be a wire noose on the end of a fairly 
long pole. The chickens were driven into a yard 
and the men could yank them and kill them very 
rapidly. Some of the men seemed to think it great 
sport. There was a rivalry of skill among them, 
but the chickens did not have any chance at all; 
yet if killing is sport then it was sport all right. 
New York, N. Y., Dec. 31, 1913. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The members of the summer colony at 
Eagle Lake, near Ticonderoga, New York, re¬ 
ceived quite a “jar” about Thanksgiving time in 
the shape of a letter from the manager of the 
large hotel there which ran about as follows: 
“Two men have bought the old Isaac Harris 
farm at the foot of the lake, including the old 
dam, and this is the point: One of them has 
taken out this structure entirely and the water 
has gone down over three and one-half feet. 
Docks and boat houses are out of water. For 
instance, I can walk around our dock and land¬ 
ing here at the hotel.” The letter closed with a 
request that the New York City property owners 
and members of the hotel colony take immediate 
steps to arouse public sentiment against what the 
hotel man designated an “outrage” and further 
expressed the belief that New York State would 
not stand for such a condition of affairs, danger¬ 
ous to health and destructive to the growth of 
game, trout and bass fish, introduced by it into 
these waters. 
The average water level of Eagle Lake has 
been continuously maintained by this dam erected 
by Mr. Harris, who formerly owned or controlled 
the pleasure boats at Prospect Park, Brooklyn, 
N. Y., and who built a large cottage at Eagle 
Lake about 20 years ago the first city house there, 
erecting this dam to improve the approach to his 
boat house at Moores Bay, three and one-half 
miles up the lake from this dam. 
Colonel Silliman, of the G. A. R. now resid¬ 
ing in New York, N. Y., lately informed the 
writer that he cut off the first-growth pieces 
and hemlock logs along the rocky shores of this 
lake fifty years ago and that there was then a 
big sawmill and dam across the outlet for the 
purpose of cutting these logs into lumber, then 
the overflow was utilized by mining companies 
and a separator was established there so 
that the name “Old Separator” designates the 
locality. Our shores have consequently been 
beautifully shaded by trees standing close to low 
watermark and have • been entirely free from 
stumps, dead trees, old logs and other spectacles 
often found along the margins of Adirondack 
lakes. 
A corporation, the Eagle Lake Improvement 
Company, began to exploit this region twenty-five 
years ago as a summer resort, changing the old 
names “Long Pond” and Chilson Lake to Eagle 
Lake, on account of the great bald-headed or 
fishing-eagles that abound here and nest in the 
mountain crags. 
Down here in Sonora if a sportsman wanted to 
take up a position in the line of flight of the 
doves, he would have ample opportunity to test 
his skill with a gun against the swiftness of their 
flight, and their ability to get away from him. 
The doves are large, they fly with strength, and 
it would take a good man to bring them down 
But to come up on them and be received with 
confidence, and then shoot them as they were 
feeding or drinking, as most people do when 
they shoot doves in this country, could hardly be 
considered nice sportsmanship. 
The charm of the locality, its convenience of 
access, being en route of the Ticonderoga and 
Schroon Lake daily stages, as well as the splen¬ 
did bass and pike fishing soon drew a number of 
quiet families to our locality with the result that 
there are now no fewer than twenty cottages and 
bungalows standing along the lake shores and 
upon its two islands, several being of great 
value, in addition to the hotel and farm cottages 
that accommodate about one hundred and fifty 
guests each year. 
Your journal has often printed hunting and 
fishing stories originating in this historic section 
called The Land of Leather Stocking in your 
issue of 1913. 
For the last four or five years the fishing has 
been failing, especially that of pike and bass 
catches of examples of the former weighing from 
fifteen to twenty-five pounds being formerly a 
common occurrence. It was believed that hun¬ 
dreds of pike were going over that dam during 
spawning time in the outlet marsh, and after con¬ 
siderable correspondence with Mr. Bean, State 
Fish Culturist at Albany, with the result that the 
Conservation Commission in August last sent an 
inspector of docks and dams to Eagle Lake who 
was received by the president, officers and ad¬ 
visory board of our local association and taken 
in a launch to this dam with a view to learn from 
him how to prevent our annual loss of game 
fishes. 
This official after a thorough inspection in¬ 
formed us then and there that what we needed 
was a dam with a very much larger “Spill” than 
the present one, so as to prevent a high wall of 
water sweeping down this narrow outlet and over 
the dam during spring freshets, which as he 
alleged caused our loss of fish. He therefore rec¬ 
ommended the construction of a new dam of con¬ 
crete, having an extra large spill-way to prevent 
a sudden rise in water level and to keep same 
uniform and at the same height as at present. He 
further directed that the old log dam be care¬ 
fully maintained until the new concrete structure 
should be fully completed a few feet lower down 
the outlet because such retention of the old 
structure would not only save much expense but 
would serve to maintain the usual water level of 
the lake during the period of construction. 
Our association through an engineer mem¬ 
ber sent to the commission blue print plans as 
recommended by the inspector and the commis¬ 
sion at once wrote to the owner of the dam site 
requesting him to build a new dam. 
Then a hunt began to discover the true owner 
of the land and the efforts put forth to avoid 
obedience to the State’s direction were similar 
to the doublings of a red fox to elude the 
sagacious hound. First of all a certain trust 
company, as trustee for the Brooklyn man’s es- 
state conveyed the lot to a Ticonderoga lumber¬ 
man who in turn disposed of a one-half interest 
in it to another man up there. 
Well, after the dam was demolished the ques¬ 
tion arose who should at once rebuild it, save 
cur fishing, and maintain the health and com¬ 
fort of our colony from the ill effects sure to 
arise from this hasty action. 
Then the new owners tried to cover trail 
by asserting that the original builder of the old 
dam had conveyed its site to the Town of 
Ticonderoga or County of Essex, in which event 
the State would have to ask a part of itself to 
pay for the new structure. This subterfuge was 
at once swept away by the county clerk’s cer- 
ficate that no such deed was of record or any 
reference to same. 
The construction cost of this new dam will, 
therefore, fall upon the Ticonderoga owners 
and it further transpires that these gentlemen 
have now emerged from their modest retire¬ 
ment with a statement that they would be very 
glad to have the waters in Eagle Lake raised 
about two feet above what has heretofore been 
its customary level, when the new dam is erected. 
The question as to such a rise of water 
was discussed during the visit of the inspector 
last summer, but, owing to the fact that all 
riparian owners had constructed their piers and 
upward of twenty motor, canoe and boat houses 
relying upon the old and long established water- 
level maintained by the then existing dam, it 
was deemed unadvisable to raise the said water 
level and make necessary the expensive re¬ 
building of these structures. 
The Ticonderoga owners of this demolished 
dam also assert that Mr. Sherman of the Con¬ 
servation Commission, chief engineer, Depart¬ 
ment of Inland Waters, advised them that the 
old dam was reported in an unsafe condition 
and that it would be better to have it torn out. 
The writer referred this last matter to Mr. 
Sherman and has just received a long letter 
from that official, enclosing a copy of Section 
22 of Chapter 65 of the New York Conservation 
I aw, as amended by Chapter 736 of the Laws 
of 1913. and attempted to show that if a dam 
were found to be in a dangerous condition and 
the owner in lieu of repairing, strengthening or 
reconstructing it should elect to entirely remove 
his old dam, that it was, at least, doubtful that 
the Conservation Commission could prevent his 
doing so. That if unhealthy conditions were 
produced by reason of his removal of this dam 
or damage resulted to persons above the dam 
by reason of its discontinuance, their remedy, 
if any, would be through the courts and not 
through the Conservation Commission; that the 
Conservation Commission is powerless to order 
any person to construct a dam where none now 
exists or to construct a dam in lieu of one that 
has been discontinued by its owners. From the 
engineer’s letter, who is apparently an author¬ 
ity on law as well as engineering, it would seem 
that the Department of Fisheries of the Con¬ 
servation Commission has no power to regulate 
and prevent the loss of fish planted by this 
State in inland waters from going over dams, 
01 to regulate their spawning places, even when, 
as in our particular case, this department wished 
to act, and did act by givinor directions how such 
waste could be prevented as T have pointed out, 
and further, though John D. Moore. Commis¬ 
sioner of Division of Inland Waters, the highest 
(Continued on page 9 j.) 
Fishing Conditions in Eagle Lake 
Removal of an Old Established Dam Causes Trouble 
