Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1897-12-10
A GREAT GAME PARK.
iwenty-siS Thousand Acres for
Preserve.

A''ousaHu Acres for a
Preserve.
g.. I. Ferris contributes an ~orticlo
on wild Animals in a New ENGLAND
tame Park to the October Century.
Mr. Ferris says, in describing the late
Austin Corbin's New Hampshire pre-
serve:
Blue Mountain Forest Park, as the
preserve is called, includes parts of
Iour townships, and lies near the en-
lerprlslng borough of Newport on the
Concord and Claremont branch of the
Boston and Maine Railroad. II is said
TO be the biggest game park in the
world except n owned by the Duke
OF sutherland in Scotland. and one or
TWO royal demesneS on the continent
VI course, in making comparisons. one
must exclude those immense public pre.
serves, as big as provinces. where the
British Government of India seeks to
save the elephant from extinction. and
our own national parks in the West.
The nalne of Blue Mountain attaches
10 the entire spur of hills which bisects
the park, while Croydon deSignates its
highest shoulder rising to the height of
nearly three thousand feet. The steep
Il denSely wooded heights of Croy-
don, curving like a hump, break the
skyline ! II the shape Of n camels back:
neal by a skirting canyon opens a car
rage route across the mountain. In
characteristics it belongs rather to he
Green Mountain than to the White
Mountain range. though it seems dis
connected from both. The verdure of
an immense forest of spruce, fir, hem
lock, pine, birch, beech and maple in
folds it to the very crest. with here and
there a brown patch of clearing. The
greater part of the Corbin Enclosure
consists of abandoned farms, many of
them already beginning to bristle
with saplings; for the woods are on the
march. Dismantled houses with win
dows and doors gaping like holes in a
skull, r~amshackle barns rotten and
weather-stained, the wreck of stone
fences thickset with brambles-these
meet the eye ut every turn.
The general outline of the park is
that of an ellipse with respective diam
eters Of about four and II half and
eleven miles. and the surface is cut
diagonally by a backbone of mountain
running northeast. The lower slopes
and the meadow levels are diversified
with brooks and swamp land, while ex-
tensive groves of second growth pro-
fusely dot the surface. 1t is in these
that the wild swine, the %progenitors of
which clashed their tusks against the
boar-spears of medieval kings and
barons, root and propagate their kind
with IA fecundity which is a marvel to
the keepers.
One can scarcely grasp the bigness of
the park by figures. But let the reader
fancy a de!nense considerably more
than double the size of Boston and all
its suburbs; thirty times the area of
Central Park, New York; almost ten
times bigger than Paramount Park,
Philadelphia; or fourteen times the
acreage of the whole park system of
Chicago. Roads, many of them thor
o%ughfares of days gone by, variously
intersect the Enclosure, and an excel
lent carriage track crosses the park
from east TO west through the pictur,
eSque notch. On the western side the
decllvity is more Sloping and open, but
has the same agreeable diversity of
scene.
a wire fence, partly mesh, partly
barbed, nearly eight feet in height and
twenty-seven miles IN circuit, confines
the four-footed tenants within its steel
barrier. The same posts which support
the fence until the trees which have
been set shall have grown to take theil
place. string n telephone connecting the
nine sub-stations at the different gates
with the central station, the home OF
the Superintendent, the Corbin villa
and the town of Newport. The keepers
and other employees Of the park vary
from twenty-five to fifty, according tc
the season of the year. 1t need scarce
ly be said that the needs of attendance
compel a vigilance which never rests
Merely TO watch the fence, lest II
should have parted somewhere by acct
dent or wanton malice, requires an in
spection twice n week.
When IL Happened.
'.What time was it," asked the judge