On fishing bent, we travel down streams until we again 

 come out into the desolation of the cut-over and burned-over 

 country. Our stream has lost its crystal, the rocks and stones, 

 their moss. Fish there yet may be, but fewer and fishing in 

 such surroundings are not to our liking. 



Up stream the next day, picking our way carefully through 

 the tangled borders of the stream we still find woods, woods 

 to the very stream's head, where a delightful lake reposes in 

 the depths of the forest, like a jewel in its finest setting. 

 Here we find the delights of a woodseer's heart, woods, lake 

 and stream. Camp ground, fuel, bed and food, all of nature's 

 best, at our hands. While we tarry there, how supremely 

 satisfying is all that we have had for the taking and how 

 glad we should be that in the midst of so great a country of 

 ruthless devastation, there are still such spots for those who 

 love them enough to seek them out. Nor should we forget 

 that to our forest service and the Minnesota Forestry Asso- 

 ciation are due our full appreciation of their efforts to pre- 

 serve for us, and for those who will follow us, this and many 

 other such retreats. 



The settlement of our border land is pushing deeper and 

 and deeper into the woods year by year. Where many of us 

 have hunted and fished in what were then heavy forests, there 

 are now cultivated fields, and cattle now wallow in the 

 streams where once we fished. The smoke from a settler's 

 cabin often rises before us where a year or so ago there were 

 no roads even, and it is a day's journey almost to get away 

 from civilization, where formerly an hour or so from the rail- 

 road would take us beyond the sound of an axe or the bark 

 of a dog. 



Well, it is for us who love the back beyond places of our 

 state that there is a strong effort being made to preserve 

 some of those rough, wild places for the benefit of mankind. 

 May we fully realize our obligations to the honest and earnest 

 endeavors of all who are aiding this effort, and may we all 

 help in so far as we may the cause of the forest service and 

 the Forestry Association. 



24 



