The Aberdeen Democrat. (Aberdeen, South Dakota) 1???-1909, 1903-08-21
GAME AND FOREST FIRES.
Deer and Small F~ur-Benring Animal
Routed in the Burned Adiron-
duck District.

Some curious effects have been OBJ
served in the parts OF the A~dIrondacks
which were visited by the forest fires
These concern the deer, trout, birds
and small game generally, says the
New York Sun.
The deer of the north woods win
tered splendidly. There was plenty OF
good food and, as a result, the number
Of fawns seen by guides and woods
men early in the season was excep-
tionally large. The long drought
caused the deer to gather about the
streams and ponds.
When the fires started their spread
was rapid because the ground was
strewn with inflammable tops left by
lumbermen. AS the cutting of pulp
timber had been heaviest along the
banks of streams down which the logs
could be tioated, the fire was tiercest
at just the places where the deer had
sought the water. The DID deer, bucks
and does, were overcome by the flames
only in rare instances. but the NOR
tally among the weak fawns was
heavy.
AS the fires continued the deer were
driven in all directions, some seeking
the heart of the forests and others
wandering to the verge of the woods.
In a number of the villages and towns
on 10Th the south and the north edge
OF the Adirondacks deer lave been
seen for the first time In years.
At Canton, the county seat of St.
Lawrence, the janitor of st. Lawrence
university reported that on June 81
two deer, a buck and a doe, ran across
the campus and out to the athletic
field, from which they headed for a big
grove a mile OR more away. Six miles
north of Canton, which itself is some
fourteen miles from the Adirondacks,
in the village Of Merely, an old bear
wandered into the main street, to be
killed.
Like reports come from other places
and tend to show that in the districts
visited by forest fires the hunter will
have to seek new fields in order to
bring away his legal two deer. The
deer are still to be found, but they
have sought new haunts in these dis
tricts.
The destruction of the smaller fur
burned districts. The fires overlook
countless rabbits, squirrels and chip
hunks. The birds likewise suffered.
AS III the case of the deer, there has
been a shifting of habitation by small
animals and birds.
1t is generally thought that in the
burned districts the trout have SUI
fered. Where the streams were shall
low this was especially the case. In
the quiet waters at the foot of rar ids
and at dams and places where burned
trees have fallen over the waters the
bodies of dead trout have been found
in numbers. In the larger lakes and
ponds fed by spring brooks there were
also evidences Of destruction.
The fires destroyed great numbers of
insects, and this has brought about
conditions which promise good sport
for the skilful fy-caster who seeks
the Adirondacks this summer. Never
before have trout been so greedy for
flies.
They rise for them as if in a famine.
Even the guides, who have ever turned
up their noses at fly fishing and, 1t
must be admitted, stocked the larder
Of the camp with w~orm-caught trout,
have fallen back on the leader and the
glittering flies under the changed con-
ditions.
In n respect, at least, the fires
have proved themselves true friends to
the thousands who summer in the
woods. The dense smoke that for days
covered the mountains was death to
the tribes of black flies, midgets,
punkies, deer flies, mosquitoes and
other ~man-eating insects. This season
will be comparatively free from them.
All in all, from the sportsman's
point of view, the fires have not been
an unmixed evil. In the burned dis
tricts they have destroyed trout, but
the trout are still plentiful elsewhere,
and f~y-fshing is a Joy. They have
driven deer and other game to new
pastures, but the true sport in hunting
deer is the chase; and to this the new
stamping grounds only add interest.