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Show Adirondachs Give N. Y. State An 'Air Conditioned' Ceiling , , x i .-- S, j r . vl " v " ' " ... Prepared by National Geographic Society, Washington, D. C.-WNU Service. Iroquois Indians, seeking beaver pelts in the mountains of what is now northern New York state, sometimes found a dead campfire and traces of moccasined feet lead- Uutdoor camping amid the pines and birches of high Adirondack Ad-irondack mountain lakes is a popular summer custom, especially espe-cially since, the advent of imilr trnrel. from Eagle bay, you enter the big county of Hamilton population only 2.3 persons per square mile. The Belgian Congo in the heart of Africa is nearly five times as densely populated popu-lated as this cityless county. Above Inlet the road penetrates a part of the state's 2,170,000-acre Adirondack forest preserve. It took a constitutional amendment to build this road. Before a tree could be cut or a boulder blasted, an amendment amend-ment to the state constitution had to be approved by the people in a referendum, for their fundamental law provides that these lands shall be kept forever wild. A busy little metropolis of the woods is the village of Saranac Lake today. But imagination conjures out of the past the picture of a rude, raw mountain hamlet a collection col-lection of guides' houses and a store past which an "old plush horse" is plodding, shaggy Kitty, Doctor Trudeau's mare. It all began in 1873 when a guide carried young Edward L. Trudeau's ing off to the north. A hunting party from one of the hated Algonquin Al-gonquin tribes of Canada had passed this way. The lips of the Iroquois curled in mocking scorn. "Hatirontak," they muttered, !eep in their throats. "Hatirontak" ("Tree-eaters," or "They eat trees"). This was an insult, a fighting word. For thus the proud Iroquois contemptuously implied that these northern woods rovers lived by grubbing about for roots and bark like famished animals as indeed they may have done in famine times when game eluded their arrows. The name stuck but not to a mere Algonquin tribe. White men liked its tripping, rhythmic sound, and they came to apply it, in time, to this whole wide wilderness where wandering bands of "Hatirontaks," or Adirondacks, once fought the Iroquois. Iro-quois. The Adirondack mountains had acquired a name. Is 'Air Conditioned' Roof. Today, paleface tribes from the cities pour into this land of evergreen ever-green and birch, of avalanche-scarred avalanche-scarred peaks and densely wooded slopes, of bubbling trout streams and clear, cold lakes the air-conditioned air-conditioned roof of New York state. Their heads have stood much higher than they are today. Time, with ice and water, lowered the summits. Glaciers, grinding down the valleys and dumping debris, formed lakes and ponds some 1,500 of them. Evergreens and hardwoods hard-woods blanket the slopes, for trees thrive in this light, thin soil where little else will grow. In the deep woods the hermit thrush sounds his flute. Deer often wander across the roads at night and from the dim distant shore of a lake rings the maniacal laugh of a loon. Heading into the mountains from the southwest, through Rome, you cross the fertile Mohawk valley, today to-day a peaceful pastoral in silver and green, but once daring the Revolution the scene of savage attacks at-tacks by scalp-crazy Indians led by ' A pi llilillliM si 4 l v : - Lake Placid, V. F., is traditionally tradi-tionally America' s most popular popu-lar winter sports resort. Here is a typical January scene showing tico skiers, the escort breaking trail for his girl companion. com-panion. frail form up two flights of steps in Paul Smith's hunting lodge a few miles to the north and laid him down on a bed, exclaiming: "Why, doctor, you don't weigh no more than a dried lambskin." The 24-year-old physician, just beginning be-ginning a promising medical career in New York, had been stricken with tuberculosis regarded as a death sentence then. He came to the Adirondacks Adi-rondacks purely by chance, and the climate helped him live a long and greenclad Tory rangers. As the road climbs higher the air grows cooler. And now (wonder of wonders) if it be late August or September when the ragweed hay-fever hay-fever sneeze is loud in the land, a miraculous change often makes itself it-self felt: the sneezing, snuffling, and weeping subside, for ragweed in most parts of the Adirondacks is practically unknown. Famous For Fish. Many fishermen come to the Adirondacks, Adi-rondacks, for the state is continually continual-ly restocking these waters with native na-tive brook trout, brown trout, rainbow rain-bow trout, lake trout, whitefish, landlocked salmon, small-mouth and large-mouth bass, pike, pike-perch pike-perch and muskellunge. On 50 peaks scattered over the mountains, state forest fire observ- monumental life as one of the world's leading disease-fighters. Monuments to Trudeau. Lasting monuments to the beloved physician are the Trudeau sana torium, the Trudeau research laboratories, lab-oratories, and the Trudeau school of tuberculosis, which exports its learning to the world. To hundreds of people all over the world the Adirondacks still mean Paul Smiths. In an ideal setting on Lower St. Regis Lake this bearded, regal guide conducted the country's most famous hunting lodge. Its principal asset was his personality, for Paul (originally Apollos) had an endless fund of stories, a ready wit, and an utter freedom from awe of plutocrats pluto-crats or royalty. "When Paul Smith first came to the Adirondacks," the saying goes, "the woods were full of Indians. When he died they were full of millionaires; mil-lionaires; among both old Paul was equally at home." Shrewd old Paul died in 1912 a millionaire himself, for he bought not only land but waterfalls, and sold electric power over a wide area as the north country developed. Today much of the Paul Smith empire remains, but its most con spicuous center and symbol is gone the lj i s hotel on lower St. Ret Lake. It burned in 1930. ers are stationed, with map and telephone, tel-ephone, to watch for telltale smoke. Above, like a huge restless hawk, soars a state patrol plane, radio equipped. When word of a forest fire is flashed, the rangers, under New York state law, can draft any- body they need for 25 cents an hour. Only one who has seen a bad forest for-est fire can know the full horror of it red fury racing through the brush and leaping from tree to tree, 250-year-old pines blazing .up like candles and consuming themselves in a trice; fierce, searing flame licking lick-ing up all life, killing the fish in the streams, putting every wild creature crea-ture to panic flight and burning alive the slow of foot; threatening towns, leaving black desolation behind, be-hind, sometimes robbing the very soil of fertility for years to come. Nature Versus the Automobile. Wild animals are still fairly abundant abun-dant in the Adirondacks, but the gasoline age has brought them new troubles. Each autumn some 6,000 bucks are shot, yet still the deer thrive. As soon as the leaves begin to redden red-den and fall all the graceful white-tails white-tails grow suddenly scarce; something some-thing tells them that the time has come to play the annual hidc-and-EOL'k with death. Hriving on up the Fulton chain |