FIRST ANNUAL REPORT

OF THE

{jommissioners of State {Jarhs

OF THE ;

SPATH OF NHW YORK.

TRANSMITTED TO THE LEGISLATURE MAY 15, 1878.

ALBANY :
THE ARGUS COMPANY, PRINTERS.
@ °1873.

FIRST ANNUAL REPORT

OF THE

ee h
{| ommissioners of State {larks

OF THE

Sar OF NEW YORK.

TRANSMITTED TO THE LEGISLATURE MAY 15, 1878.

ALBANY:
THE ARGUS COMPANY, PRINTERS.
1873.

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SLATE OF NEW YORK.

PN Sh N. AcT i,

May 15, 1873.

FIRST ANNUAL REPORT

OF THE

COMMISSIONERS OF STATE PARKS OF THE STATE OF
NEW YORK.

Hon. Joun C. Rostnson, Liewtenant- Governor :

Sir.—I herewith transmit the annual report of the Commis- |
sioners of State Parks of the State of New York, for the
year 1872.

VERPLANCK COLVIN,

Secretary.

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To the Honorable the Legislature of the State of New York:

The Commissioners of State Parks of the State of New York,
having been directed “to inquire into the expediency of providing
for vesting in the State the title to the timbered regions lying within
the counties of Lewis, Essex, Clinton, Franklin, St. Lawrence, Herki-
mer and Hamilton, and converting the same into a public park,’’
respectfully present the following

REPORT.

After a careful consideration of the projected forest park, with its
practical bearing upon the interests of the people of the whole
State, we are of opinion that the protection of a great portion of
that forest from wanton destruction is absolutely and immediately
required.

We do not favor the creation of an expensive and exclusive park
for mere purposes of recreation, but condemning such suggestions,
recommend the simple preservation of the timber as a measure of
political economy.

The conclusion that the permanent preservation of a large por-
tion of this forest is necessary, is based upon numerous considera-
tions intimately connected with the great business interests of the
State. Before proceeding to the discussion of the reasons which
have brought us to this conclusion, a statement of facts in regard
to the region is desirable.

The ancient Cough-sa-gra-ge—the beaver hunting country of the
Indian Six Nations—now known as the Adirondack wilderness, is
essentially a great and almost primeval forest, covering the moun-
tainous and semi-mountainous elevated region of Northern New

6 First ANNUAL IREPORT OF THE

York. The northern portion of the county of Hamilton is the
approximate center of the wilderness, while the western portion of
Essex county contains the most elevated lands and the highest moun-
tains of the State. From Lake Champlain on the east, the Mohawk
river on the south, the Black river on the west, and the St. Law-
rence on the north, the land slopes upward towards the wilderness,
whose marked peculiarity is the multitude of its lakes, of greater or
less degree, and the vein-like ramification of its crystal brooks and
rivers. The surfaces of the principal lakes throughout this upland
are generally elevated from fifteen to sixteen hundred feet above the
sea, whénce some writers have been erroneously led to term the whole
region a plateau or table land; viewed from some lofty peak it is
seen as a silent expanse of mountains, shrouded in unbroken woods,
vast and quiet, and stretching to the apparent limits of the sky.

Throughout this forest, game is still abundant ; the deer, bear and
panther, with smaller animals, find shelter and support, and their
presence gives to the magnificent scenery a strange, wild and
romantic element, which has contributed to make its more accessible
portions a choice summer pleasure ground for those of our people
who. travel,.and who admire the natural splendors of their, native
land.

A few settlements only have as yet been formed in this wild terri-
tory, although during the two hundred years past, numerous attempts
have been made to.recover and cultivate it, all of which have
signally failed and recoiled with disaster upon, the projectors. The
cause of the failure of these enterprises is to be attributed. to, the.
deplorable ignorance that has existed in regard to the climate, soil
and general capabilities of the region, which rendered. unwarrantable
the’expenditures made. Amid ie mountains, granitic rocks, sparcely
coyered with vegetable mould, soon, become bare and aleadet arid
when deprived of the dense growth of trees and the net-work of
roots and fibres which hold the soil together. Ages will have passed,
before the slow growth and death of minor plants upon the naked,
rocks will again afford sufficient soil to enable the second growth of
timber to attain the size and value of that destroyed.

It must, not, however, be supposed that all this region is a mass of
rock. There are extensive tracts of gravelly and sandy soil, inter-

CoMMISSIONERS oF STATE PARKS. 7

vales, and, near some of the lakes and rivers, alluvial lands, which are
sometimes covered with a dense growth of wild grasses, often cut and
cured by the lumbermen for the use of their oxen and horses in
winter. Nevertheless, owing to the elevation and the coldness of
the climate, there is no profitable farming carried on anywhere upon
this upland; for, seldom is there a year in which the temperature
does not fall so low as to prevent the ripening of corn, while frost is
not unfrequent even in summer. The potato, that hardy vegetable
which may be grown even far toward the Arctic zone, in Labrador
and British America, is here produced of fine quality, in some loca-
tions. Oats, also, grow thriftily, especially upon new lands or soils
that contain even a small percentage of lime, which mineral—so
important to the agriculturist—is, unfortunately, not abundant. In
fact, the agricultural products are absolutely nothing when compared
with the products of the forests; which are indeed the only surface
wealth of the region; and but for the need which the lumbermen
and the summer tourist have for even the scanty amount of hay, oats
and potatoes produced, and provisions brought in and kept for sale at
these slender settlements, those settlements would soon cease to exist.
As it is, many of the inhabitants are forced to eke out their subsistence
by hunting and trapping; and, latterly, since the value of the region
as a summer resort has begun to be understood by our citizens and the
citizens of other States, the class of guides—hardy and intelligent men
—has inereased, and thousands of dollars, which have hitherto been
expended in travel in foreign lands, remain in or are brought into our
State.

The mineral wealth of the region is not inferior to that of its
forests. It is practically limited to iron; which exists in remarkable
purity and enormous quantities; but careful geological exploration
has proved that the available deposits of ore are confined to the
northern portion of this region, and that the ore-beds generally exist
in the settled, cleared or accessible portions of the country. Great
activity in iron manufacture is now exhibited near Lake Champlain,
at Port Henry, Mineville, Elizabethtown, Black Brook and Danne-
mora. The beds which here supply the furnaces are of magnetic or
octohedral ore. Passing westward, along the northern boundary of
the region, the character of the rock changes, and the specular,
hematite ores of iron are encountered, and the ore-beds, as at the

8 First ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

Iron mountain in the town of Oakham, St. Lawrence county, are
often unworked, and far in the depths of the woods.

In addition to these masses of iron, there are beds of serpentine
(so-called verde antique marble) steatite, or soapstone, and deposits
of graphite. There are also superior grades of granite, or more
properly gneiss, valuable for building purposes. Besides these pro-
ducts there are no mines or minerals of great commercial importance.

In the early days of iron manufacture in this region, all the iron
was made with the aid of wood charcoal. When a pure ore was
used, free from sulphurets and phosphides, the “ charcoal iron ” pro-
duced was unsurpassed in quality, and commanded a high price.
The result was that large sections in Essex county were entirely
stripped of forest in order to supply the requisite charcoal. The
mountains thus debosqued are to-day almost treeless, showing deso-
late flanks of naked rock; and some of the streams which once were
trout brooks are now torrent beds, through which the water of each
storm on the smooth sides of the mountains rushes swiftly off to
leave them almost dry, instead of slowly percolating through a sponge
of moss and tree roots, as a slow-running, cold and constant spring.

To the introduction of coal from Pennsylvania by railroad may
be partially attributed the present activity in the mining of iron near
Port Henry, as in that immediate neighborhood the supply of wood
was long since exhausted. It is not alone to coal, however, that this
activity is owing; it is more directly attributable to the improved
means of transportation. Instead of dragging the fuel far from the
coal fields, up steep grades to the mines, and then dragging the iron
produced out again to market, a great portion of the ore is now
transported directly to the cities, to the furnaces, to points where
labor is cheap, and where repairs to machinery can be readily made.
Instead of being overloaded with coal, the empty cars go easily up
hill to the mines, to roll speedily down again laden with the heavy
ore.

From this it becomes evident that, for the development of the iron
mines of the region, railroads only are needed. Without railroads,
neither the ores nor the products of the ore-beds of the interior can
be brought to market. Withrailroads, and the easy access they afford

COMMISSIONERS OF STATE PARKS. g

to the coal fields, wood, which must be cut and drawn by team over
a rugged country, and would at length give out, becomes a fuel far
too expensive to compete with coal.

The advancement of iron manufacture, therefore, is simply a mat-
ter of railroads; and the development of the mineral wealth of the
region does not in any way conflict with the projected preservation
of the forest.

Vast portions of the wilderness are owned and controlled by the
lumber interest, which, with that of the tanneries, is lkely to, be
most immediately and radically affected by the creation of a State
forest park or timber preserve. ‘These lands are generally purchased,
held, and valued solely for the timber growing on them. As soon as
the pine, spruce and hemlock trees have been taken off, the lands are
often abandoned and revert to the State for unpaid taxes. The com-
mon and wasteful method among lumbermen, therefore, is to cut all
the available timber from a given section at once. This enables them
to escape further taxes on that piece by abandoning and throwing
the same back upon the State. The small trees, even under ten
inches in diameter, are cut, and thus the natural process of replace-
ment by a second growth of the valuable varieties of timber, becomes
very slow, if not impossible.

The mass of brushwood, the boughs and tops lopped from the
trees in such quantities, dry and wither, and become in summer beds
cf tinder. The first spark from a hunter’s fire kindles them, and
now—spreading rapidly through the forest—commences one of those
terrible conflagrations which have covered whole townships with a
sea of flame, and, invading the settlements, have destroyed mills,
dwellings and human lives. These fires reveal the slenderness—
of the soil, which—though sometimes several feet in depth—is often
totally consumed, even down amid the crevices of the great boulders,
which after the fire stand out red and burnt, like the uncovered
bones of the world. The soil, apparently so rich and strong, is here
without base, substance or solidity ; being only the rich peat-like
earth, derived from the semi-decay of the fallen timber and sphag-
nous (peat) mosses. In agriculture such a soil is fairly eaten up by
the plants cultivated in it, and the boulders gradually appear above
the surface, as when the soil is burnt. Great tracts in Franklin

10 First ANNUAL RepoRT OF THE

county have been swept by these fires, and the people of that section
best know what a terrible infliction they are. It is interesting to
notice that some of the people assert that they have detected a
remarkable diminution in the usual flow of water in the streams of
the burnt regions, and that sudden floods are more frequent now
than heretofore.

The tanneries, which are scattered along the margins of the wil-
derness, require great supplies of bark, and, therefore, aid in the
rapid destruction of the forest; though the hemlock is almost the
only tree which is cut. So thorough in some sections has the
work been made, that it is frightful to see the numberless crossed
trunks of trees, lying one upon another, stripped of their bark and
white as skeletons, left there to decay.

From an early day there have been numerous projects for building
railroads through this region, most of which have been abandoned,
and none of which have been completed.

At different times charters have been granted for such railroads,
and, to some, special immunities and privileges have been given.
Among these that now passing under the name of the “ Adiron-
dack Companies Railroad” is prominent. This company appears to
have succeeded to the rights, privileges and real estate of the old
Saratoga and Sackett’s Harbor railroad, organized April 10th, 1848
(afterwards known as the Lake Ontario and Hudson railroad, organ-
ized April 6th, 1857), which became insolvent and passed into the
hands of a receiver. Finally the present railroad, by certain amend-
atory articles of association, under the general railroad act, and by
other means, has come to assume the character of a great landed
‘corporation. A large portion of the land which they possess was
originally obtained trom the State at the price of five cents an
acre; more than 250,000 acres being obtained by the Saratoga and
Sackett’s Harbor railroad in this way. The manner of their acqui-
sition will, perhaps, be better understood by an examination of the
following transcript from the report of the State Engineer and Sur-
veyor (Assembly Document No. 60, Jan. 15th, 1857, page 202):

‘“‘Since the spirit of land speculation has subsided, to dispose of
our public lands by wholesale was not to be expected, until by act

COMMISSIONERS OF STATE PARKS. ki

chapter 207, Laws of 1848, and subsequent’ acts chapter 72 of 1851
and chapter 122, Laws of 1855, the Commissioners of the Land
Office are authorized and required to sell and convey to the Sackett’s
Harbor and Saratoga Railroad Company 250,000 acres, belonging to
the State in the counties of Hamilton and Herkimer, at the rate of
five cents an acre, on the company complying with the conditions
named in said acts. This claim has been satisfied in full, by lands
granted in August, September and October, 1855, viz. :

pace Per acre, Amount.
Hamilton and Essex counties...... 205,202 5 cents $10,260 11
And on July 23, 1856:
Hammon cOUMtYe Moeoe sc. ls ca he 20,000 5 cents 1,000 00
Hamilton and Warren counties .... 6,984 30 cents 25095 20
Wratien:. COUMEYA)....2.5 <.:25< oes cis 15,974 30 cents 4,792 20
Warren and Essex counties........ 7,042 30 cents 2,112 60
FG STS a ete OEE? 955,202 $20,260 11

. aK “will anes a the following extracts from the minutes of
the Land Office, on the 9th. July, 1856, the Sackett’s Harbor and
Saratoga Meee Company by their ‘aa Mr. Waddell, made
the following proposition :.

¢ T, 0. the Commissioners of the Land; Office:

‘“¢ GENTLEMEN.——I_ ‘propose, ‘for the Sackett’s Harbor and Saratoga
railroad, to take lands now owned by the State in Hamilton and
Herkimer counties, in accordance with our chartered rights, 20,000
acres; the road having already received 205,000 acres, and claiming
25,000 acres adversely claimed by Dart, Kirby, Loomis and others ;
also propose to purchase 30,000 acres of lands belonging to the State,
lying in other counties, and to pay for the same thirty cents per acre,
under a stipulation from the road, to be filed, that in case our suit
for the disputed lands is decided against the road, the number of
acres now purchased shall go toward the amount due from the State,
in which case the excess over five cents per acre to be refunded.’

“ Therefore,

“ Resolved, That the proposition herewith submitted by the Sack-
ett’s Harbor and Saratoga Railroad Company be accepted, and that
patents be issued, upon the payment of five cents per acre into the

12 First ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

State treasury, for 20,000 acres of land lying in Hamilton and Her-
kimer counties, and not claimed adversely by other parties; and that
the proposition to purchase from the State 30,000 acres lying in
Warren and Essex counties, additional, to pay therefor the sum of
thirty cents per acre, be accepted, and that patents therefor issue
upon the payment of thirty cents per acre, and the filing of a stipu-
lation, on the part of said company, that in case the suit for lands on
the part of the company, and defended by the State, shall be decided
against said company, the amount of their said purchase at thirty
cents per acre shall go toward the amonnt found due from the State,
acre for acre in which case the excess over five cents per acre shall
be refunded said company.”

The suit of the railroad company was decided against them, and
they obtained these last—thirty-cent—lands in Warren and Essex
counties also at five cents an acre.

These transactions show that the wild lands of this region are,
intrinsically, of very little value; for a single acre of farming land,
valued at the moderate price of $100, is equal to 2,000 acres at five
cents an acre. The working of the iron ores would in no way inter-
fere with the preservation of the forest, for the mining companies
would only require those lands in which the iron lies, and the right
of way for their railroads.

The area of the wilderness may be estimated approximately at
one million seven hundred and thirty thousand (1,780,000) acres, or
about two thousand seven hundred and three (2,703) square miles.

These wild lands are distributed among the several counties in
about the following proportion :

County. Acres,

MPV seatanast eye ets bee ee fed ag Sat ral a in 750,000
leas ite eins: } cpstec, peers oe ok A ODE Lollsy a toys td a ee eR a 350,000
NEO WAGU Rar. oes SNS Sea Sey Mae Ce ooicn, Sie Shee een 60,000
Sil Bawrences!/ 10 ae a Oe (A POMP AEE LORE | SOE 40,000
Pranialin is atiosiewa sey cole De a ahh ae 300,000
HESS eae ic aN MEN 8 ee sath Se ats Bo 200,000
WEE ie: Rene Pere a 9 ges UT cnn ec mag IO Ui rin ea AE 30,000

4 Wo | Nghe EGR ty I LO a ies he Reis os SMA, 1,730,000

The county of Clinton, though containing much wild land, lies in
a measure separated from the main portion of this great forest, and
has not, therefore, been included in these estimates.

COMMISSIONERS OF STATE PARKS. is

About eight hundred and thirty-four thousand four hundred and
eighty (834,480) acres, or one thousand three hundred and three
(1,303) square miles, are upon the Hndson river side of the mountain
divide which separates the head waters of that river from the streams
flowing to the St. Lawrence. This would be the approximate area
of the region which would be required for the purposes of the forest
park, in case it should be determined that the preservation of the
forests covering and protecting the sources of the Hudson is al that
is necessary for that purpose.

The following is a statement of all the lands now owned by the
State and remaining unsold:

County General Fund. School Fund.
Acres, Acres.

Winton SPR? Bia ut ei al se lat sh oa) 8,315 39027
Essex AR ORCL ONG LA NRCROLS DCT SEG COTE ORTEEOS OL Dee co. Seely te 25824 9,954
| STRAIT SUIT 9 anne co 2 OR On gk ate HY iL 180
Hamilton Be RUD seus Lops ¥e\<c key Oct owe eqal uated Svat emncetone 7,397 39558
MLERKAMNCE eee ye 780 26
Si Mawrence? east egal bignely, 66
erence node er tht ied cts lel wth arcrrpinheginyses 645 3,081

dU oteed lige ye eens cols. eye ss eet eee ee 19,962 19,892

In all 39,854, or nearly 40,000 acres.

Having now given an outline of the more important facts and
statistics in regard to this region, we will proceed to a review of the
considerations which have brought us to the conclusion that these
great forests should be permanently preserved.

Foremost among these considerations is the question of water sup-
ply—of the maintenance of that quantity of water in the navigable
rivers, in the streams that supply the canals and afford power to
mills and manufactories, which from time immemorial has flowed in
undiminished volume in their channels, and which only in these later
days begins to slowly fail and disappear. This is, of course, a ques-
tion of rain-fall, for it is to the precipitated moisture of the air that
all streams or rivers owe their origin. There is nothing of greater
importance to the agriculturist than rain at the proper season and in
the proper quantity ; and science has demonstrated that the forests
of a country are potent in the regulation of storms, the formation of

14 Frrst ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

clouds and the descent of rain. Anything which vitally affects the
interests of the farmer and producer affects the whole State, and
demands the earliest attention of the people’s representatives.

The State of New York is, perhaps, the most remarkable water-
shed of the eastern half of North America. Northwardly its waters
descending the St. Lawrence wash the coast of Labrador, while, far
at the south, waters, which reached the earth from the self-same
shower amid the Adirondack highlands, pour through the Hudson
valley to the sea; and, in the western portion of the State, the sour-
ces of the Alleghany river rush, foaming, from their mountain springs
to the Ohio, flowing thence through the Mississippi to the Gulf of
Mexico. It is noteworthy that nearly every stream in this State, if
traced to its source, will be found to originate in some lake or pond
—of greater or less degree—from which, if in a forest region, it
pours in an unfailing stream. South of New York there is no lake
region till the brackish, dead-water bayous of Florida are reached ;
and it is to this system of lakes, of natural reservoirs, bosomed in the
cool primeval forests, that our State is indebted for that water supply
which has created our canals, and that steady water power which is
the wealth of so many manufactories.

Without a steady, constant supply of water from these streams of
the wilderness, our canals would be dry, and a great portion of the
grain and other produce of the western part of the State would be
unable to find cheap transportation to the markets of the Hudson
river valley. In Erie, and the neighboring western counties, grain
would decrease in value, and the farmers would be in the power of
the great railroad monopolies. The merchants at Albany would also
suffer, their summer trade would be ruined, and the hundred propel-
lers which now make the Hudson foam before the fleets they tow,
might be idly tied to the wharves and left there to decay.

We believe that the great Adirondack forest has a powerful
influence upon the general climatology of the State; upon the rain-
fall, winds and temperature, moderating storms and equalizing
throughout the year the amount of moisture carried by the atmos-
phere ; controlling, and in a measure subduing, the powerful north-
erly winds, modifying their coldness and equalizing the temperature
of the whole State.

COMMISSIONERS OF STATE PARKS. 15

It is now generally conceded that forests do not increase the
amount of annual rain-fall. Their influence is to cause a distribu-
tion of the rain in frequent showers at short intervals throughout the
year, while their absence induces droughts, followed by sudden and
tremendous storms which are the origin of disastrous floods.

The record of the rain-gauge, year by year, shows only the amount
of annual rain-fall. Let the total rain-fall of any year be supposed
to be forty inches. If about every ninth day during the year there
oceur a shower—or forty annually—depositing only one inch of
rain, the aggregate rain-fall of the year will be forty inches.

If, on the other hand, but eight storms occur, each precipitating
rain to the amount of jive inches, the amount of annual rain-fall is
as before, viz., forty inches.

It thus becomes evident that the amount of annual rain-fall is not

the question to be discussed, but “how, and in what manner does it
fall 2”

In the first instance, the rain coming in gentle showers refreshes
and revives the earth, forwards agriculture and is a blessing.

In the second instance, there are long periods during which rain
does not fall; the land is parched by the sun’s fervent heat ; evapor-
ation proceeds rapidly; the air, though clear, is saturated with
invisible moisture, heavily charged with electricity, which finds the
moist upper air a better conductor than the heated, dry, repellent
surface of the earth. The drought continues; nature is silently
becoming exasperated, for there are now (in this case) no broad, cool
forests, nor cold, wocded mountain sides to condense the vapor into
cloud. The only chance for the relief of the atmosphere from its
burden of moisture is the advent of some cold north wind. It
comes at length, and the region of the air is convulsed. Black,.
gloomy clouds rapidly gather, and the suspended vaporous ocean
overhead drops suddenly in one grand deluge, while the released
electricity flies back to earth, cleaving the air with dreadful detona-
tions. Down hill sides the furious turbid waters rush to the streams
and rivers, cutting and carving ravines through grain fields or gar-

16 First ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

dens, and then, with united swollen volume, sweeping before them
and destroying bridges, dwellings, cattle and human beings.

We have only to turn to France to see realized, as the actual result
of forest slaughter, the very disasters which we have here described.
There, though the government has been called upon to contribute
large sums, and great contributions have been collected to aid the
peasant farmers suddenly made destitute by such floods, the means
seem to have been inadequate to relieve the suffering originated by
the reckless wasting of the woods.

All floods, however, are not to be attributed to the destruction of
the forests; for in this, as in other things, there are exceptions to the
rule. Nevertheless, upon the Hudson river, the destruction of the
Adirondack forest would have a calamitous effect. The deep winter’s
snows, accumulating upon the disafforested uplands, would remain
unmelted till the thousand and three hundred square miles of the
present wilderness watershed might have a compact covering of snow
equivalent to twelve inches of water. Spring, with its sunshine and
showers, would suddenly release this latent ocean; thirty-six billions,
two hundred and forty-one millions, nine hundred and twenty thou-
sand (36,241,920,000) heavy, cubic feet of water might rush at once
down through the valleys to the sea. Move than a quarter of a mas-
sive cubic mile of water hurled furiously into the narrow valley of
the Hudson, it would sweep before it fields of ice, to crush and
sink the strongest vessels, and ruin the warehouses on our wharves.
While the Adirondack forests remain, these deep snows will be pro.
tected from the direct rays of the sun in spring, and will slowly and
gradually melt away. The general temperature of fhe region will,
consequently, be low; the air will not be overcharged with moisture,
and sudden heavy rains will be improbable. Such vapor as exists
will form light drifting clouds, which, influenced by the forest, will
act the part of one vast shielding canopy above the snow-bound earth.

While, in our opinion, the chief and very important influence
which forests exercise upon the rain-fall is their power to moderate
storms and distribute the anuual quantity of rain more equally
throughout the year, there are not wanting, among the greatest of
scientific men, those who strenuously advocate the theory that the
presence of great forests increases, and their absence dimishes, the

COMMISSIONERS OF STATE PARKS. 17

amount of annual rain-fall. Among those who have given the
weight of their names and influence to this theory may be men-
tioned Humboldt, Bonpland, De Sausure, Bousingault and others,
who, in support of their opinions, have recorded facts so remakable
that they cannot be passed without notice.

De Sausure early came to the conclusion that the great diminution
of water in some of the lakes of Switzerland was directly owing to
the destruction of the forests covering the slopes of the Alps.

The Spanish historiographer Oviedo, in his account of Venezuela,
states that the city of Neuva Valencia was founded A. D. 1555,
about one and a half miles from the Lake of Tacarigua. The lake is
peculiar as having no outlet, though numerous streams empty into it.
The climate of the surrounding country is favorable, and the soil pro-
ductive. In A. D. 1800, Humboldt visited it, and learned that for
thirty years its waters had been gradually decreasing, being then dis-
tant three and one-third miles, the difference being proved by abso-
Iute measurement. The great philosopher recorded his conviction
that the disappearance of the water. was owing to the destruction
of the vast forests in the neighborhood of the lake. After the period
of Humboldt’s visit, wars and dissentions paralyzed the industries of
the country, and the tropical forests quickly grew again. In 1822,
Tacarigua was visited by Bousingault, who found that the waters were
rising, the people showing places which had been farms, but which
were now covered by the lake.

The astronomer Herschel, while in Africa, at the Cape of Good
Hope, made careful meteorological experiments, and is said to have
remarked with surprise that rain fell plenteously upon the ‘forest,
while the neighboring plains received no showers.

More recently an unpretentious botanical publication of New
York has made public new and important information; the famous
West Indian island of Santa Cruz is at the present moment, it seems,
suffering from the former vandalism of its inhabitants; its eastern
portion, which twenty-seven years since was rich, populous and of
tropical luxuriance, now deprived of its forest, has become dry, arid
and worthless. It is now found to be too late to retrieve the pre-
vious error, for of a thousand trees, recently planted upon an estate

[Senate, No. 102.] 2

18 First ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

on this island, not one survived. The statements in regard to the
Island of Curagoa are still more interesting: “ In the year 1845, it
was found to bean almost perfect desert, where, according to the tes-
timony of the inhabitants, had once been a garden of fertility, aban-
doned plantations, the recent ruins of beautiful villas and terraced
gardens, and broad arid wastes without a blade of grass, showed how
sudden and complete a destruction had fallen upon this unfortunate
little island. The cause was the cutting down of the trees for export
of their valuable timber; the effect followed even more rapidly than
at Santa Cruz, as the island lies five leagues further to the south, and
the heat is more intense. The rains have almost entirely ceased, and
fresh water is among the luxuries. Almost within sight of Curagoa is
the coast of Spanish main, covered with the rankest vegetation, over
which the burdened clouds shower down abundant blessings.”

In a recent paper of the British Association for the Advancement
of Science, an author states his belief that forests have little or no
effect upon the rain-fall; but, at the same time, he records the fact
that wherever forests have been cleared from the slopes of the Alps,
destructive torrents have arisen, which disappeared when the trees
were replanted. The author further relates the result of an experiment
touching the influence of forests upon evaporation. Two open-
mouthed jars of water were sunk so as to be nearly level with the
surface of the soil, the one in an open field, the other amidst bushes.
An equal quantity of water was placed in each jar, and after five days
it was found that the jar in the field had lost by evaporation twice
as much as that partially sheltered by the bushes.

But it is not necessary to enter more fully upon this an bieels One
thing seems to be beyond the possibility of doubt, viz.: that the
destruction of a forest covering the sources of a stream or river, by
exposing the moist earth, the springs, rills and brooks to evaporation,
diminishes the supply of water in those streams. It is a principle of
natural law and equity that no man has a right to take from others,
without compensafion, any property or privilege. Again and again
streams have been diverted from their natural beds by selfish, igno-
rant men, who, as often, have been compelled by the stern mandate
of law to restore and turn back the stolen water. The Indian
savage, dependent for food upon the forest game, knew nothing of

COMMISSIONERS oF STATE PARKS. 19

such questions ; they were intangible and far beyond his comprehen-
sion. We, in the semi-barbarism of the present, are putting aside
or passing by as incomprehensible the self-same question in another
form. The mass of mankind do not see or fully comprehend that
the rivers flowing down hill past them are forever, in the clouds,
flowing up hill overhead. Like a long, endless wire rope moving
over pulleys in some deep mine, the water descends the stream only
to return. Destroy a pulley, and the slack rope stops, catches, and,
perhaps, is broken ; destroy the forests, and the rain first stops, then
falls suddenly in flood torrents, which are succeeded by hot, blasting
droughts. It is a continuous process, this evaporation, cloud, rain
and river, yet it is only one of the many perpetual motions which
the Creator retains as his prerogative, and which man can merely

apply and modify.

It has been shown that the forests preserve and protect the springs
and streams among them. No man has, therefore, more right
to cut away those forests absolutely, and thus divert, by evapora-
tion, the water they protect, than he has to conduct it away, for
his own selfish purposes, by canal or tube. Those below him
upon the stream, the mill owner and operator, and the farmer and
his cattle, are as much entitled to the water as the lumberman is to
the timber. When we find individuals managing their property in
a reckless and selfish manner, without regard to the vested rights of
others, it becomes the duty of the State to interfere and provide a
remedy. Here, by ruthless destruction of the forest, thoughtless
men are depriving the country of a water supply which has belonged
to it from time immemorial, and the public interest demands
legislative protection. The canal interests of the State are very
great, and are already suffering from this wrong. The water
supply of the Champlain canal is entirely obtained from the streains
of this wilderness, and the Erie canal, from Rome to Albany,
is almost entirely supplied from the same watershed. In the Hud-
son, near Albany and Troy, navigation, at midsummer, has become
very difficult. The mill owners at Glen’s Falls and at other points
find that their water fails them; and the farming lands throughout
the State suffer from the storms and droughts already noticed. It is
of no consequence that, through ignorance of the natural laws gov-
erning rain and rivers, men have hitherto permitted, without protest,

9) First ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

the injustice which they felt, but the cause of which they did not
understand. The State must apply the remedy, and, to protect their
interests, preserve the forest.

The supply of timber which a State possesses within its own
limits is one of the measures of its wealth. The lumber trade of
New York was among its earliest sources of income, and our people
will have cause ever to regret the hour when that trade shall cease to
exist. At first sight it may appear that the absorption of all this
vast forest (practically the only lumber region now remaining in the
State) into a State park would amount to the immediate annihilation
of that trade. The idea of such an unproductive and useless park
we utterly and entirely repudiate. The park should be eminently a
timber preserve and reserve. The carefully protected \forests of
Europe afford their States large annual incomes; the timber is cut
under the direction of officers charged with the care of the forests,
who mark the old and mature trees for cutting, and see that as little
injury as possible is done to the growing timber. In England, and
more especially in Ireland, forest cultwre has received much atten-
tion; for as early as the 17th century the cultivation of forest trees
for industrial purposes was commenced. In Ireland, barren hill-
sides and hitherto desolate regions have, by arboriculture, become
rich with forests, and the native trees are now in some sections less
abundant than the foreign varieties, the very scenery being changed.
In France and Germany there are natural forests which are preserved
and properly cared for, affording supplies of valuable timber for
house and ship building. Should an Adirondack park be created,
careful consideration should be given to the utilization of the forest.

If the present wasteful use of lumber be continued, even the
forests of Canada and the West will fail; and even now our supply
from those quarters may be any year destroyed by another series of
those forest conflagrations which have, in Wisconsin and Michigan,
already been so extensive and disastrous. Unless we desire to be
reduced to the use of inferior timber—of balsam-fir and other trees
which we now regard as worthless

we must preserve our forests.

In addition to these weighty considerations of political economy,
there are social and moral reasons which render the preservation of

COMMISSIONERS OF STATE PARKS. 21

the forest advisable. Its effect upon the general healthfulness of the
State is great. The philosopher, Boyle, long since remarked that in
the Dutch East Indian island of Ternate, long celebrated for its
beauty and healthfulness, the clove trees grew in such plenty as to
render their product almost valueless. To raise the price of the
commodity, most of the spice forest was destroyed. Immediately
the island—previously cool, healthy and pleasant—became hot, dry
and sickly, and unfit for human residence. It is well known that
the general clearing away of the forests in this country has had a
tendency to raise the temperature, which in summer reaches such a
hight as to be barely endurable. In our cities, these great heats—
acting upon garbage in those miserable quarters which are but cess-
pools and sinks—give rise to the probable source of cholera and
other epidemics, the foul miasmatic effluvia which could not exist in
the presence of living vegetation. Anxious to escape, our citizens
hasten either to the country, the sea-shore or the mountains, while
those whose avocations will not permit their absence, find a
purer air in the semi-rural suburbs, or in those elegant parks which
modern culture and civilization have come to consider indispensable
in any city.

The accessible portions of the Adirondack wilderness have already
become favorite resorts for those seeking health or pleasure. The
field sports of the wilderness are remarkably exhilarating, and
strengthen and revive the human frame. The boating, tramping,
hunting and fishing expeditions afford that physical training which
modern Americans—of the Eastern States—stand sadly in need of,
and which we must hope will, with the fashionable young men of
the period, yet replace the vicious, enervating, debasing pleasures of
the cities. It is to their eager pursuit of field sports that metropoli-
tan Englishmen owe their superiority in physical power, with that
skillful use of fire-arms, independence, fearlessness, cool presence of
mind, and ability which they possess to bear the fatigues of war
and exigencies of military service.

To foster and promote these natural and healthful exer-
cises among the young men of the State, it is necessary in some
measure to preserve the game, and the forest which affords it
shelter.

99 First ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

In seasons of cholera the wilderness has been thronged with peo-
ple, who have thus been preserved from that disease, and this is but
one of the many additional considerations which might be urged as
reasons for the preservation of the forest.

The area of the proposed park will not appear so immense when
we compare it with that of the United States park at the head waters
of the Yellowstone river, in the Rocky Mountains. When we
remember, also, that that great reservation was made by the Govern-
ment, not from motives of political economy or public necessity, but
simply in order to preserve it as a pleasure ground for the people,
then the claims of the Adirondack Park to consideration become
apparent.

The little settlements already existing in the region are not incom-
patible with the project, but are, on the contrary, indispensable to
the completeness of the park. They would keep provisions, as now,
for tourists and lumbermen; and the people of these settlements,
many of whom now earn a livelihood as guides, having a direct
interest in the welfare of the park, would voluntarily protect the
game and timber from unlawful destruction. _

A summer residence in this wilderness has been found so favorable
to health, and has become so popular, that people come even from
St. Louis and Chicago, and more distant points south and west, and
remain throughout the season. The mass of travel, however, comes
from Philadelphia, Boston and New York city. Should these
wild lands become the property of the State, it is thought that
leases of woodland points in lakes, and of islands near certain
favorite localities, to citizens desirous of erecting rustic summer
villas or hunting lodges, would form a very considerable source of
income, and mcre than repay any expenditures which would be
necessary.

There is no need, however, for any expenditures, save, possibly, in
the improvement of a few of the principal roads leading to the set-
tlements. The forest is in itself a natural park, and it would he
improper to think of inclosing and fencing it, for it should be a com-
mon unto the people of the State.

COMMISSIONERS OF STATE PARKS. 93

The question before your commission is one of great importance
to the State, and requires their further consideration. For the present
we deem it advisable, and recommend, that the wild lands now owned
and held by the State be retained until this question is decided.

Apany, Jay 14, 1873.

HORATIO SEYMOUR,
PATRICK Hy AGAN:
WILLIAM: Bee TAY LOR;
GEORGE RAYNOR,
WILLIAM A. WHEELER,
VERPLANCK COLVIN,
FRANKLIN B. HOUGH,

Commissioners.

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