a saw, and the timber wolf, though charged with many strange 

 things, has never been charged with using such tools of this 

 kind. Another was found where most of the skeleton except 

 the skull was present. This particular skull may have been 

 more palatable to the wolf-pack (?) than the ordinary run of 

 moose skulls or perhaps it had accompanied a very nice set 

 of antlers. 



Now, while I believe that the wolf in our state is too fre- 

 quently made the scapegoat where the blame belongs more 

 properly upon the members of the human species, neverthe- 

 less it is an established fact that this beast can and does 

 destroy big-game, and effective measures must be adopted to 

 control its numbers. Although a most difficult animal to 

 hunt and to trap, yet I am firmly convinced that, if serious 

 effort is made and experienced trappers are employed, who 

 are at the same time reliable men, and this applies especially 

 to our great forest reserves, who shall make the pursuit of 

 the timber wolf their particular aim, this predatory beast 

 can be controlled so as to be a comparatively negligible quan- 

 tity as concerns our game, both big and small. The winter 

 and early spring months is, of course, the time for this trap- 

 ping. Care is needed that permission to trap wolves and such 

 other predatory beasts as our game laws may refer to in the 

 ambiguous language, "other noxious animals," is not given to 

 persons who interpret this description to apply to any animal 

 the fur of which brings a desirable price in the markets. At 

 the present time there is urgent need. for patrols in our forest 

 reserves during the entire fur-trapping season, to guard 

 against the surreptitious trapping that each year takes place. 



We come now to our big-game animals, deer and moose. 

 But first, in regard to a question which I have sometimes 

 heard asked, whether o.r not elk or wapiti in the wild state 

 occurs at all in Minnesota today, I have no positive informa- 

 tion. I have known of rumors to the effect that not many 

 years ago a few of these animals occurred in the vicinity of 

 Lake of the Woods. I believe that there is none at present 

 in a wild state in Minnesota. Further, of caribou it may be 

 said that a. small band is known to have been leading a pre- 

 carious existence for some years on the north 1 shore of Red 



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