376 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[March 6, 1909. 
legs and wings removed; an opening is next 
made along the hack and the skin with the fat 
is taken off. The skins, when a large number 
of them have been obtained, are “tried out” in 
a pot and the fat is collected. Next in order 
is the process of salting. The lower joint of 
each leg and the outer joint of each wing are 
thrown away, and the bodies are then salted and 
packed in barrels into which is poured sea water 
and solid brine in order to make the water still 
more salty, the solution being sufficiently salt 
to float an egg. 
The birds are then shipped in sailing boats 
to Launceton, in northern Tasmania, where 
they sell at wholesale for about los. ($2.50) 
per hundred, which nets to those who capture 
the birds, after paying for the salt, the barrels 
and the freight, about 8s. ($2) per hundred. 
About 850,000 were shipped to Launceton during 
the present season, and probably about 150.000 
birds were retained for the local consumption 
of the inhabitants of the islands, with whom it 
is the leading article of food. After reaching 
Launceton the birds are shipped to other parts 
of Tasmania, and to Melbourne and Sydney. 
The market for them appears to be confined 
exclusively to the Commonwealth of Australia 
and chiefly to the mining districts where fresh 
food is hard to get, and where the mutton-liirds 
are used as a substitute for salt pork and as 
a welcome change from tinned meats. 
The feathers of the mutton-birds, which have 
a very strong odor, are mostly shipped to Ger¬ 
many, where, it is understood, a method has 
been found to rid them of their odor and render 
them fit for purposes of bedding. About 25,000 
pounds of feathers were exported this year at 
an average of about three cents per pound. 
About one-half of the inhabitants of the 
islands where mutton-birding is carried on are 
whites, and the remainder half-caste descend¬ 
ants of the aborigines of Tasmania. The mut¬ 
ton-birders are required to pay a Government 
license of los. ($2.50') for every person above the 
age of ten years, and half that amount for those 
under that age, at the outset of every season. 
No cattle are permitted upon any Crown lands, 
which are reserved as hunting grounds for the 
mutton-birds, and taking the eggs of the birds 
is punishable by fine. Notwithstanding this pro¬ 
tection accorded to birds there is indication that 
their numbers are diminishing year by year, and 
from four or five of the islands they have al¬ 
ready entirely disappeared. 
The two principal rookeries are at present 
on Chapel Island and on Babel Island, where 
conditions are most suitable for the burrowing 
of the birds, and where the best protection has 
been afforded against depredations by cattle. 
The number of persons engaged in the 
industry is about double what it was twenty 
years ago, and a larger number of birds is taken 
ever}' year. It is estimated that only about one- 
third of the young birds escape capture each 
season on the main rookeries. I am told that 
some of the birds have been shipped alive to 
Cape Colony for the purpose, apparently, of en¬ 
deavoring to ascertain if they would breed there, 
but I have no information as to whether the 
experiment has met with, success. 
The Furneaux group is in latitude 40 degrees 
south and longitude 148 degrees east. The 
climate is mild, but the winds often blow in 
severe gales and cause boisterous seas. 
Adirondack News and Observaiions. 
Little Faixs, N. Y., Feb. 27 .— Editor Forest 
and Strcani: The winter has been very remark¬ 
able in this part of the Adirondacks. I hear 
from the deep woods that the deer have not 
gone into yards at any time during the season, 
the snow not having reached a depth sufficient 
to prevent them from going where they 
pleased. The result is, they have been on the 
ridges and about the hardwoods about as much 
as in the lowlands and evergreen knolls and 
swamps. In bad weather they have gone to the 
shelter of the evergreens. As they have been 
able to reach the tender shoots and.twigs of 
the shrubs on which they feed, the animals are 
in good condition. A big buck with horns still 
on his head was seen in the Fulton Chain 
country about the roth of January. 
The fear that ruffed grouse were becoming 
exterminated has not been realized. My brother 
says he never saw so many of the birds around 
Northwood, at the edge of the woods. They 
were in flocks, were strong flying and in num¬ 
bers without precedent in the memory of the 
woodsmen. The explanation seems to be that 
last year was a splendid breeding year, and 
that very few of the birds were lost through 
inclemencies of the season. 
Rabbits (northern hares) have been plentiful. 
In recent years, notably last winter, they were 
very scarce. In northern Herkimer county 
they have been more numerous than for some 
time. 
With us, when foxes, weasels, fishers and 
other game eaters are plentiful, grouse, rabbits, 
squirrels and other small animals grow rapidly 
scarce. Just now the game is in the ascendancy, 
but it will probably not be for long. Owing 
to the law forbidding the capture of martens 
before the end of 1910, no trapping or fox 
poisoning is likely to be done in the deep 
woods, with the result that the fur-bearers will 
get a start once more. One trapper will kill off 
the supply of fur on a hundred square miles 
of territory. I have seen where a fox poisoner 
ent the supply of foxes from dozens to two or 
three shy and alert individuals. 
One of the pleasing results of attempts to 
preserve Adirondack animals has been the in¬ 
crease in the number of otters. There were 
several years on the West Canada when these 
charming creatures seldom or never appeared, 
but witbin two or three years whole families 
of them have come to the vicinity of North- 
wood. A year or two ago an ice gorge formed 
just above the forks of Little Black Creek. 
The rising water drove the otters from their 
holes or dens at the island. Their barking 
sounded similar to a pack of dogs, a woodsman 
said. This was the first I knew that the otters 
had returned. 
This winter several otters have come down 
the creek. Two came together, sliding on the 
snow and ice. In one place they slid down a 
long hill. Beside this pair, there seem to have 
been others traveling alone. Of course, they 
will doubtless clear up many pounds of suckers 
and some trout. 
The sleets and rains have covered the ice 
with thick crusts. Probably even a deer’s sharp 
hoofs would not cut through a crust like that 
of the past few days. It would hold up horses, 
and skaters enjoyed the novelty of gliding far 
a-field. Snowshoes or skis were simply an en¬ 
cumbrance. As soon as the snow reaches a 
depth of three or four inches, many youngsters 
start abroad on snowshoes—some who are not 
so young also use the snowshoes when, in fact, 
the walking would be much easier without them. 
The work of the Forest, Fish and Game 
Commission has cleared the situation in north¬ 
ern Herkimer county in a fashion delightful 
from the viewpoint of law and order. Some of 
the most notorious timber tbieves have been 
driven from the region, while Chief Burnham’s 
game and forest protectors have frightened the 
worst Herkimer county offenders against the 
game laws as they were never frightened be¬ 
fore. A few winters ago venison was peddled 
from house to house in Wilmurt by men who 
made a regular business of butchering deer in 
yards in that region. One of those butchers 
served his hundred days in jail, but there fol¬ 
lowed a period in which little was done. Then 
Burnham’s protectors arrived on the scene last 
year. The woodsmen talked as though it would 
be fun to trouble them, but the protectors kept 
plodding along. They caught several men, and 
they have several now who are afraid of their 
back tracks. 
I doubt very mucb if there has been one deer 
killed this winter where ten were killed in other 
winters. Of course, here and there individuals 
will knock down .game regardless, but for tbe 
most part the law-breakers will keep out of tlie 
woods. The protectors are said to have found 
two or three instances of law-breaking, and the 
breakers are in a most uncomfortable frame of 
mind in consequence. Witnesses and suspects 
have had long journeys to the county seat and 
justices of peace, and neighbors are not receiv¬ 
ing “chunks of meat’’ as in former times. 
One of the most important acts of Commis¬ 
sioner Whipple was the purchase, by condem¬ 
nation, of 40,000 acres of land near Fulton 
Chain. It was announced that certain capital¬ 
ists were going to develop 60,000 acres by put¬ 
ting in a railroad, mills, wood-working indus¬ 
tries, and building a town of a thousand 
inhabitants. . Whether or not the capitalists 
meant to do it is a matter of doubt; but Com¬ 
missioner Whipple took no chances. He im¬ 
mediately set about acquiring that land for 
the State Forest .Preserve, as he could do 
under a section of the Forest, Fish and Game 
law. Fie took 40,000 acres, and a day or two 
ago, 4,000 acres more was purchased. 
The effect of this cannot fail to be far-reach¬ 
ing. Heretofore there has been no such drastic 
action, save in the matter of forbidding by 
constitutional amendment, tbe cutting of tim¬ 
ber on State lands, and the reserving from sale 
of State lands in the Adirondacks. The com¬ 
pulsory sale of the great tract of land must have 
the effect of preventing some of the owners of 
great tracts of land from skinning them. It 
was notice served on some of the so-called 
private preserves, that if the owners do not 
properly care for their holdings, the State will 
seize the lands. Conditions in the Adirondacks 
would be much better to-day if that policy 
had been put in force twenty years ago. It 
sounds the knell of land skinning, and Com¬ 
missioner Whipple’s sale of seedling trees for 
planting on private lands is a real beginning of 
State-encouraged forestry in the Adirondacks 
by private owners. 
