The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1890-01-23
THR NoRTa WOODS IN PERIL.

ing the purchase OF lands by the stat
authorities in the Adirondack Fores
Preserve Such bill was introduced .
year ago, but it received but scant atten'
ton from the Legislature. Meanwhile
the need of the State stepping in ana
buying a large proportion of the Adiron-
dack lands has become highly obvious,
The railroads the last year have eX'
tended their lines farther into those sec
tions of the Adirondack plateau still
covered by the primeval forest, lumber
companies have bought up several hun
bred thousands acres of timber land, and
have begun cutting timber from some OF
the most, beautiful lake and river site
in the wilderness, and lastly private clubs
have bought many thousand acres o
land which they are shutting off from
the public with barbed wiIe fences.
A statement of what the railroad COM
paDies, lumber firms and sporting clubs
have done the last year ought to con
vince the Legislature OF the necessity OF
swift action on its part il the state is t.
possess alAdirondack Forest Preserve
worthy of the name. Persons who will
examine q map of the State of New
York will discover a railroad called 1.-THE
Northern Adirondack" running south
ward through Franklin County from
MORA, on the line of Ogdensburg and
Lake Champlain Railroad. This is EN-
phatically "lumber railroad" 1t has
some passenger traffic in the summer
months, but there are few settlements
along its line, and therefore it must de-
pend upon the transportion of logs OF
lumber for its support. 1t may be said
to have eaten its way into the wilder
ness, sweeping the forest away before
as it advanced southwark. The last
summer it has been extended to Upper
Lake. At the same time an extension
has been made to the Carthage and Adj
rondack Railway, which comes into The
Adirondack forests from the westward
starting at Carthage, on the line OF The
Rome, WATERFOWL and Black River
Railroad, and running eastward. Tht
last stations OF the two railroads art
now hardly twenty miles apart, and il
is said the two lines of rail are to be con.
nected. This will be done before mex
summer, in order % take advantage o.
the tourist traffic. When this junction
is m&de, travellers from the West jour
neyingF TO Paul Smiths, on ST, Reg
Lake, for instance, will enter the Adj
rondacks from the westward, instead Of
travelling as nowadays to Albany anC
then northward to Plattsburgh, or to
MORA, making a very roundabout ano
tiresome journey, 1t is said that sleep
ing and drawing-room cars will be run
a lso from New York City, over the New
York Central to Utica, and thence north
ward to Carthage, and thence over thu
Carthage and Adirondack and the North
ern Adirondack to the Adirondack re-
sorts, The Vanderblts have forest Lodge
ailJordon Lake. They purpose toput in =
:. railroad siding near that lake, upon
which to run their private cars when
they are in the wilderness.
While so far as the tourist traffic If
concerned the Foresty Commissioners
are not dspleased at these railroad con
nectioDs being made, it yet remains true
that they look with well founded appre
hension upon such an extension of thu
roads as will give the lumbermen access
to the new forests, Already the extern
sion of the Northern Adirondack Rail
road to Upper Lake has had disastrous
consequences so far as the woods art
concerned. Dams have been constructed
by lumber companies IN the Bay RIVER
and in other streams flowing into tn,
lake, for the purpose of rising the level o
those streams aud floating out logs t
the lake. Tourists the last summer hav
been shocked by the ruin wrought by thu
lumbermen. The region of Upper Lake,
Bay River, and Jenkins Pond has been
one of the most picturesque in the Adj.
rondack region, 1t is now rapidly losing
all its beauty, A tourists writes.
At Bog River Falls there is dam set
ting up the water to the junction OF
Upper Lake stream. Just above this
there is another on Upper Lake stream
Still another, south of Horseshoe Pond
browns the shores of the rivers. and OF
North, Middle and Hitchings Ponds.
and will overflow Horseshoe Pond as
well. Jenkins Pond has dam at thu
outlet, which will, when the gates art
shut, destroy all the beauty that the
lumbermen's fires have left. The entire
length Of the brook has been blasted.
making a great unsghtly gap, like the
the track of an avalanche, through
p. which will be driven flood Of water
and the mass of logs now filling the
, pond. An Adirondack lake stream in
lis natural state is shaded to the waters
edge. This shade keeps the shallow
"uNGl5 HUN uHuoNlO piuh'oI Wv
roots bind the soil together and form a
natural sponge, which retains moisture.
and allows it to distill gradually, thus
keeping up perpetual supply. A dam
changes all this. The vegetation on the
shores is drowned and killed by the rails
ing of the waters. and this dead matter
decays IN the sun, causing malaria; the
soil, no longer held together by the roots
is washed away by the rains, till only
bare rock remains. This soil is depos-
tied in the water-course, grasses and
reeds spring upin the shallow, unshaded
waters, holding still more of the mater
lal washed down, till water-courses are
in some cases quite obiiterated. Through
those that remain, the rains, pouring
over the denuded rocks, rush in destruc-
tive torrents. The water supply becomes
insufficient, intermittent and source OF
danger. Immediate action, the removal
of the dams, and keeping them out
would save this neighborhoOd. If they
are left till spring, no power on earth
can repair the mischief. This reckless
and Illegal numbering means ruin to the
beauty OF the country devastated by fire
and flood; 10 its health, destroyed by rot.
ting vegetation; to its fish, killed by
blasting and by the changes in the water
level; to the deer, by the destruction Of
their cover and ofs the animals them
selves, when the snow renders them de-
fenceless. Game laws, of course have
no one to execute them in remote lum
Der camps. 1t also means destruction tC
the business of the country, which de-
ponds on the visitors attracted by it'
beauty, health and game. Further il
means destruction of the water supply
of our great rivers"
This is, but one of many like storie
told by travellers, showing the rapid
destruction of the landscape beauty OIL
the Adirondacks and disclosing the fact
that the State is in great danger OF being
deprived of the sources of water supply
of the Hudson. of the Mohawk, and Of
the Black rivers.
Mention was made of the fact thai
large purchases of timber lands have
been made recently. A numbering syn
dictate has bought $50, 900 acres Of limb,
land IN that vicinity of the Fulton chair
of lakes and "John Browns Tract
These lands were purchased of the Du
rant family and contain the best hard
wood timber yet rmsiDing in the Adj
rondacks. AS for the Fulton chain Of
lakes every Adirondack traveller know
that they are not surpassed in beauty il
the Adirondack. 1t is said that Thu
numbering syndicate, which consists
largely of Western men, intends to bullC
a RAILROAD from this large tract Of $50.
900 acres to Leyden, on the Black Rive
{ Railroad, ito cut down the timber and Il
send it to Port Leyden to be sawed vi
,. into boards.
Lovers of the Adirondacks will also re
greet to hear that the lovely AmpersanC
Pond uill aonn no denuded of ita wOOda