52 
THE SPORTSMAN’S AND TOURIST’S GUIDE. 
and palace cars. The officers are courteous 
and attentive, and—what to a sportsman is of 
great importance—the baggage-masters will 
take very good care of their dogs at trifling 
charges. 
For the first seventy miles the road passes 
through a dense forest of hard wood, the 
“Grand Bois” of the French fur traders in 
ante-territorial times. Deer are here quite 
plenty, and ruffed grouse very abundant and in 
the numerous lakes good pickerel, pike and 
black bass fishing is found. If you are a fol- 
lower of good old Izaak Walton make your 
first stop at Wayzata, where the beautiful Lake 
Minnetonka, one of the finest in Minnesota, 
offers you unusual opportunities, and where 
the hotel accommodations are very good. 
Farther ou through the woods a sportsman 
may find suitable quarters at almost any station 
but Howard Lake, Cokato and Dasse] are 
recommended, 
At Darwin you get the first glimpse of the 
great Northwest-rn prairie. Groves scattered 
here aud there between grain fields, lakes and 
stretches of native prairie, are at first numer- 
ous; but, as you proceed westward, they 
gradually diminish in numbers and extent, 
until after passing Hermann, not a tree is in 
sight for forty miles. 
In this beautiful country between Darwin 
and Hermann, the pinnated grouse is found 
everywhere quite plenty, and in certain places 
there is excellent duck and geese shooting, 
notably in the neighborhood of Litehfield, 
Atwater (at the Kandigohi lakes), Willmar, 
Morris and Hermann. In all the places com- 
fortable accommodations they may be had at 
reasonable prices, and also teams to carry the 
At Her- 
manu you bid good-bye to lake and grove and 
enter a sea of waving grass, the famous valley 
of the Red River of the North. 
Sojourning in this valley, the observant 
sportsman can hardly fail to notice some new 
features as well in the flora as the fauna of 
this region when compared with that of the 
more eastern parts of Minnesota. Instead of 
the usual varieties of prairie grass you find 
the bunch or buffalo grass of the plains. 
The common deer has nearly disappeared and 
is supplanted by the elk, and farther north by 
the moose. ‘The pinnated grouse is now 
scarce, but its sharp-tailed congenor become 
sportsmen to the hunting grounds. 
more and more numerous; and to those sports- 
men who- would wish to find this, the finest 
game bird of the grouse family, in multitudes 
in the Red River valley, we say, do not delay 
until it is too late, for the Red River valley 
in its length and breadth will soon be trans- 
formed into a waving wheat field, and as this 
noble bird afflects not settlements, he will soon 
retire to the wild prairies.and oak openings, 
less likely to be disturbed by the presence of 
man. Among other changes in the animal 
kingdom may be mentioned that our well 
known little cotton-tail is seen here no more, 
and its place is occupied by its larger cousin, 
the jack-rabbit, the common Western brant is 
supplanted by that most beautiful of the An- 
serine, the snow goose, which here may be 
seen in flocks by the hundred; and the smaller 
curlew so common along the eastern parts of 
the road, gives room to the sickle-bill. Doubt- 
less there are many other changes. 
After leaving Hermann there is as yet, on a 
stretch of 150 miles, only three stopping places 
with fair hotel accommodations—Breckenridge 
where there are good geese, duck, grouse and 
woodcock shooting ; Glyndon, where this road 
intersects with the Northern Pacific, and 
Crookstown, near the present terminus. 
Around the two little places the sharp-tailed 
grouse is found in great abundance. 
THE LAND OF DAKOTA. 
YANKTON. 
It is evident that this is a new coun- 
try, from the game that is so plenty all 
around, Of course, the buffalo have 
left this section, although several have 
been killed recently in Eastern Dakota 
—one only a few miles west of Water- 
town, the western terminus of the Win- 
ona & St. Peter Railroad; others west 
and north of Fargo. The deer are gone 
to the Black Hills and the country of 
the Yellowstone; but the antelope re- 
main—much like the Frenchman’s flea, 
and about as hard to catch or shoot. 
Antelope steaks are plenty during the 
Winter months. In the way of feath- 
ered game are geese, sand-hill cranes, 
