THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY 
SCHOOL OF HYGIENE AND PUBLIC HEALTH 
618 NORTH WOLFE STREET 
BALTIMORE. MARYLAND 
DEPARTMENT OF BIOCHEMISTRY 
August 16, 1939 
Dr. Aldo Leopold, 
University of Wisconsin, 
Madison, Wisconsin. 
Dear Doctor Leopolds 
I have for many years been studying every source of 
information available to me about the food situation in which 
primitive 'roups of people found themselves.   I recently reread 
Parkman's 5esuits in North America.  These missionaries described 
the Iroquois and the Hurons as very frequently confronted with 
famine conditions. In this book the estimates of the early 
French officials and missionaries as to the population of the 
vast area occupied by these Indians were ridiculously small as 
contrasted with what one thinks to be the bountiful food resources 
of this territory*   Of course since the Iroquois were so ferocious 
in their determination to exterminate the Hurons the agricultural 
efforts of the women were often thwarted by their having to flee 
at the sound of the war whoop.   Nevertheless, I had always supposed 
that the deer population and other small animals must have been very 
considerable in that area*   Can you give me any information as to 
the game population - deer, rabbits and birds - in the area in question 
in primitive times? Was the wolf population so large as to reduce 
the herbivorae constantly to small numbers?   I shall appreciate any 
thoughts you may have on this subject. 
Captain John Smith in his "History of Virginia, 1580-1631, 
indicates that deer were very plentiful in that region. 
Yours sincerely,