THE "BIG WOODS. 



fHE "Big Woods" comprise a belt of Pine forest 

 P thirty miles wide, which extends for three hundred 

 ^ miles fi"om Lake Superior through Wisconsin into 

 Iowa. Considerable portions of this immense pinery- 

 are owned by the Fox Elver Improvement and Black 

 Eivcr Log Companies, and a wealth of lumber has already 

 been taken from it. Nevertheless, there are sections where 

 the axe of the pioneer has never entered, and where the 

 hunter alone intrudes upon the haunts of the bear, the wolf, 

 and the deer. Its principal water-courses are the St. Croix, 

 Chippewa, and Black Elvers, with their almost countless 

 tributaries, which ramify In every direction and penetrate 

 where even surveyors have seldom trod. All of these flow 

 into the Mississippi Elver, and are remarkable for the purity 

 and coldness of their water and the abundance of brook- 

 trout which they contain. In these upper streams these 

 speckled beauties alone dwell, uncontamlnated by contact 

 with less aristocratic species of fish, and lamentably Ignorant 

 of the wiles and devices of the angler. As a rule they are 

 not of surprising size, seldom exceeding two pounds in 

 weight ; but In some streams they run uniformly at about 

 one-half a pound, which is a pleasant weight for a light 

 rod and finest tackle. Of the tributaries of the St. Croix, 

 the Apple Elver, Eau Claire, Tortogalie and Namekagon are 



