52 North American Forests and Forestry 



years ago, for instance, the children of a settler 

 living a few miles from a town in Central Wiscon- 

 sin, a little girl of eight and a brother two years 

 younger, went picking raspberries. When they 

 had not returned by nightfall, the parents became 

 anxious and summoned the neighbors to help 

 search for them. But no trace was found. The 

 next morning the people of the village were notified. 

 At once the sawmill was shut down and the whole 

 male population went to the woods to continue the 

 search, while the women were busy providing food 

 for the searchers. All efforts were vain. A band 

 of tramping Winnebago Indians who happened to 

 be in the neighborhood were arrested by the sheriff 

 on suspicion of having stolen the little ones, but of 

 course there was no evidence of this. Several 

 months later a woodsman found the remains of the 

 unfortunate children in the densest tangle of a 

 windfall, with the clear traces that wild animals, 

 probably wolves, had attacked and partially de- 

 voured them. 



Let us return to the early settlements of the 

 western forest. The lack of transportation facili- 

 ties was the chief reason why for nearly a gener- 

 ation after emigration into this section had begun 

 in earnest, the condition of the settlers remained 

 that of backwoodsmen rather than farmers. They 

 were still directly dependent on the forest for nearly 

 all the necessities of life, and the forest still im- 

 pressed its indelible stamp on their character, while 

 they produced but little change in the conditions 



