FOREST AND STREAM. 
817 
r 
j) 
' Nov. 21, 1908.] 
Forest Fires in Essex County. 
Elizabethtown, N. Y., Nov. 14 . —Editor 
v orest and Stream: In Forest and Stream of 
sjov. 7, Raymond S. Spears, in speaking of the 
ecent Adirondack forest fires, says: “It is plain 
hat a hundred years of natural growth will not 
•eplace the forests destroyed; but if from this 
destruction the public is awakened to the fact 
hat every acre of these great burnings might 
easily be planted to spruce and other valuable 
I :imber, then perhaps we will soon see real for- 
j ;stry on a great scale in the Adirondacks.” 
It has lately been stated in various newspapers 
that the fees received from gun licenses in the 
State of New York thus far amount to $ 85 , 000 , 
and that it is expected that gun license fees for 
a full year will exceed $ 100 , 000 . 
“What shall it profit a man if he gain the 
whole world and lose his own soul?” 
It cost to fight the recent forest fires in Essex 
county alone the astounding sum of $ 40 , 000 , the 
amounts paid in seventeen of the eighteen towns 
of the county, expressed in round figures, being 
as follows: Chesterfield, $ 1 , 900 ; Crown Point, 
$ 300 ; Elizabethtown, $ 1 , 250 ; Jay, $ 3 * 500 ; Keene, 
$4,600; Lewis, $ 4 , 000 ; Minerva, $ 3 , 500 ; Moriah, 
$ 1 , 000 ; Newcomb, $ 1 , 750 ; North Elba, $ 12 , 000 ; 
North Hudson, $ 1 , 200 ; Schroon, $ 900 ; St. Arm- 
and, $ 1 , 700 ; Ticonderoga, $ 1 , 600 ; Westport, 
$200; Willsboro, $ 400 ; Wilmington, $ 200 ; total, 
$40,000. 
One-half this expense is paid by the State and 
one-half by the towns in which the fire occurred. 
This means that $ 20,000 forest fire expense will 
come out of the seventeen towns above named. 
It has been said that the railroads were respon¬ 
sible for nine-tenths of the recent forest fires. 
This is not true so far as Essex county is con¬ 
cerned. For instance, in the six lakeshore towns 
mentioned above—-Chesterfield, Crown Point, 
Moriah, Ticonderoga, Westport and Willsboro— 
the total fire claim is only $ 5400 , and if it was 
all the fault of the railroads it would be only 
a “drop in the bucket” compared to the enor¬ 
mous total of $ 40 , 000 . Again, Essex, the home 
town of John B. Burnham, chief game and fish 
: protector, is a lakeshore town and the D. & H. 
R. R. passes through the entire length of the 
! township, and in the center at that, and yet 
J there were no forest fires in Essex. The fact 
is the D. & H. patrol in Essex county did faith- 
‘ ful and efficient work, keeping fires started by 
its locomotive sparks down to a minimum. And 
certainlv the fires in Schroon, North Hudson, 
, Keene, Lewis, Wilmington, Elizabethtown, New- 
i comb and Minerva, towns where no railroad 
: touches, could not be laid to locomotive sparks. 
And the same is true of much of the fire in 
North Elba and Jay, in both of which towns the 
flames started and raged most fiercely several 
miles distant from a railroad line. 
The total amount received to date for gun 
licenses in Essex county is, in round figures, 
$2,740. Six wild lots in Essex tract alone, for 
which an offer of $ 10,000 was made a short time 
previous to the forest fires of 1908 , were burned 
over and practically used up, the only value left 
being that in the scorched timber, which must 
1 be cut and hauled to market the coming winter. 
Houses and other property outside of standing 
: timber have been burned in various townships 
where railroads were in no way responsible. 
Innocent property owners generally are begin¬ 
1 
I 
I 
I 
ning to sit up and take notice. The poor farmer 
is compelled by law to give notice to surround¬ 
ing property owners when he burns his fallow 
and he must do it at a certain time. On the 
other hand the big lumbermen leave acres of 
brush piled to dry and become communicators, 
adjoining farm property, etc., suffering unjustly. 
Brush is brush, whether cut by a lumberman or 
a farmer, and should be burned at a season when 
surrounding property will not be endangered. 
An ounce of prevention is worth more than a 
pound of cure along this forest fire line, and if 
“the public is awakened” to the real situation 
there will be an honest, intelligent and successful 
investigation into the causes which have led to 
such direful effects. If it cost $40,000 to fight 
forest fires in Essex county alone, what has it 
cost in the entire State of New York? 
If it is a fact that certain provisions of the 
present game law are so unsatisfactory that Adi¬ 
rondack hunters are as a class opposed to their 
application, is it not high time matters were 
thoroughly looked into? Room for improve¬ 
ment is the greatest room in this world, and it 
is barely possible that there is still room for 
improvement in certain provisions of the game 
law. By all means let us sift things to the very 
bottom all along the line and not claim the rail¬ 
roads are responsible for nine-tenths of the re¬ 
cent forest fires. If the present system is to 
continue indefinitely, the Adirondack wilderness 
will have to be alive with patrolmen having 
power of arresting offenders on the spot. 
Lastly, while I used to hunt years ago, I have 
not of late been in active harness and have no 
axe to grind. Moreover, I am a law and order 
man from top to bottom. However, I am deeply 
interested in the scenic beauty of the Adiron¬ 
dacks, where I was born and raised and where 
I have summered and wintered for over forty 
years, and feel that the situation is imperative. 
If the attempt to protect the forests of the Adi¬ 
rondacks is to be a success, there must be im¬ 
provement in the system. In the hope of aiding 
in crystallizing public sentiment along helpful 
lines, these words are written by one whose real 
interest in the welfare of the Adirondacks is 
second to no other man residing therein. 
George L. Brown. 
Autumn Lure. 
The blue mist hangs at the forest’s edge, 
And the white mist wreathes beside; 
The dew is bright on the rustling sedge, 
And the sumach leaves are dyed. 
A strip of mist and a strip of gold, 
With a crimson hue between; 
A glimpse of brown where the fruits unfold, 
And a dreamy, hazy sheen. 
The down is still and the valley, too, 
While the river’s song is slow; 
The lone crow wings through the silent blue 
And its shadow flits below. 
I hear the sound of a birch-bark call 
From the wide marsh over there, 
And crash of boughs on the ridges tall 
As the bull moose leaves his lair. 
Full dear these days of the mist and gold, 
When the free earth thrills the heart; 
With the gold of now and the mist of old, 
May we never, never part; 
For all we gain would at best be nil— 
Should you deem it gain at all— 
If we lose the joy of the old-time thrill 
When the gods of autumn call. 
S. A. White. 
A Pheasant in the City. 
Lockport, N. Y., Nov. 10 .—Editor Forest ana 
Stream: Yesterday a young man reported to 
me that “a female pheasant was on the roof 
of Hopkins’ blacksmith shop from morning until 
noon one day last week.” This is in the center 
of the city, within fifteen rods of Main street, 
and where the trolley cars pass every few 
minutes. This is not the first instance where 
pheasants have been seen in the city. A few 
years ago a young lad brought me a male bird 
that he had shot on the roof of the barn, think¬ 
ing it was a hawk after the chickens. When I 
told him that there was a fine of $100 for kill¬ 
ing the bird, he wanted to leave it with me. I 
took him to Charles W. Hatch, president of 
the Niagara Anglers’ Club, to whom the young 
man explained why he killed the bird, and noth¬ 
ing was done about it. 
Pheasants are getting to be quite numerous 
in western New York, especially in Monroe and 
Ontario counties. In some of the counties the 
law permits the killing of three males during 
the open season. A party of three Lockport men 
visited one of these counties, secured the allotted 
number, and brought them safely home. Not 
so fortunate was a party of five Buffalo men 
who visited Wayne county week before last. 
Three of the party got two or three pheasants 
each, but as soon as the train passed the county 
line, a game constable came in from the smok¬ 
ing car arid took their pheasants from them. As 
they were not permitted to take them from the 
county, and as the adjoining county has no open 
season for pheasants, they could not be pos¬ 
sessed in that county. 
The constable made them show their hunting 
licenses and took their names and addresses. 
A friend reported to me that while in a boat 
on Hopkins Creek two weeks ago he saw four 
pheasants feeding in an apple orchard, and while 
walking through the field from the boat to the 
house put up two other pheasants. 
J. L. Davison. 
A Change of Base. 
Montreal, Can., Nov. 15 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: I notice that F. C. Armstrong, a New 
Brunswick guide, has folded his tent and moved 
away from the East to Schreiber, Ont., near 
Lake Nepigon, on the northern shore of Lake 
Superior. He is in a good moose, caribou and 
trout country. I have wondered that these 
guides have not learned before the advantages 
of the northern Ontario country. Caribou and 
speckled trout are features in the Lake Superior 
country; it is also a good moose country and 
getting better all the time. 
I am glad to see that wolf hunting is growing 
popular. J. A. Hope, who has been local man¬ 
ager of the Canadian Camp Club on Lake 
Waquekobing, Sowerby, Ont., is going to hunt 
wolves all winter. He has built log cabins and 
is prepared to take sportsmen who would like 
to experience the delightful and health-giving in¬ 
cidents of a hunt in the northern Canadian for¬ 
est in mid-winter. Mr. Hope was the most suc¬ 
cessful guide in last winter’s Kippewa wolf hunt. 
I can recommend him as a man who looks after 
the comfort of his patrons. These cabins will 
be open all winter. Hope has hunted all over 
the world. He is still a young, active man and 
a thorough woodcraftsman, L. O. Armstrong. 
