INTERNATIONAL ITEMS. 



203 



picture, was curtly refused, through super- 

 stitious belief that harm would follow. A 

 judicious contribution to the pot, however, 

 enabled me to get a snap-shot, while they 

 grabbed for the coin. 



On the next day we reached the camp of 

 a gentleman, who, with his wife, was spend- 

 ing the summer in the woods. We enjoyed 

 their hospitality 2 days, before starting 

 on our return trip. He had a very com- 

 plete camp and outfit. With him, besides a 

 colored cook, were 4 men, who assisted in 

 hunting and fishing. On some of the neigh- 

 boring lakes, with which this region 

 abounds, this man had canoes, so bounti- 

 ful strings of bass, walleyed pike and pick- 

 erel were easily secured. 



But why 



44 Sing of the happy days that followed 

 In the land of the Ojibways, 

 In the pleasant land and peaceful." 



Why tell of voracious appetites; of sleep- 

 ing on the ground, where 



" Weariness 

 Can snore upon the flint, when resty sloth 

 Finds the downy pillow hard." 



On the return we varied the trip by 

 portaging 4 miles across from the Bow- 

 string to the Cutfoot Sioux river; then 

 paddling down this to Lake Winnebegosh- 

 ish, and down the Mississippi, among the 

 rice beds, in which we found ducks in great 

 numbers. Walleyed pike and pickerel 

 might have been caught by the boat load. 



We paddled down the swift current of the 

 Mississippi, to the mouth of Leech river; 

 and from there with a hard day's work, 

 reached the Government dam in Leech 

 lake. This dam and one on the Missis- 

 sippi, where it flows from Lake Winnebe- 

 goshish, are large, expensive Government 

 structures for maintaining a high stage of 

 water in the upper Mississippi. 



At Leech lake the keeper of the dam has 

 a pair of moose, in his pasture, which he 

 hopes to sell to some collection. 



Less than 10 hours' paddling brought us 

 back to the agency, after an absence of 13 

 days, during which a journey of 300 miles 

 in canoes had been made. I secured a col- 

 lection of pictures and other trophies that 

 will long serve as reminders of a rough, 

 but exceedingly pleasant trip. The woods 

 were full of grouse; the waters swarmed 

 with fish; ducks were abundant; while 

 moose and deer were seen in fair numbers. 

 Big game is killed by the Indians at all 

 seasons. One day we met a native in a 

 canoe, in whose cap were 2 feathers, sig- 

 nifying he had killed 2 Sioux. This brave's 

 canoe was half filled with the meat of a 

 moose just killed, .a large piece of which 

 he willingly parted with. 



The country is wild — no roads nor trails 

 — accessible only by canoe journeys; so, in 

 spite of the slaughter by Indians, game is 

 plentiful. 



The Leech lake region is destined to be- 

 come popular with those seeking a good 

 camping, hunting and fishing country. 



INTERNATIONAL ITEMS. 



F. L. OSWALD. 



A NATURAL GAME PRESERVE. 



The/ happiest hunting-ground of the 

 Eastern Continent is, at present, probably 

 the Elbrus range, # on the South shore of the 

 Caspian and some 200 miles East of the 

 Russian Caucasus. Deer, wild goats, elk, 

 wolves, bears, leopards, foxes and badgers 

 abound in the uplands; in the summit 

 regions of the mountains, which attain a 

 height of 18,000 feet above tidewater, there 

 are chamois and wild sheep, and in the 

 coast jungles tigers, darker and somewhat 

 larger than the Bengal variety. Wild hogs 

 also abound, and the foothill region is the 

 original home of the wild pheasant, and 

 now almost its last refuge, since the pheas- 

 ant river, the Caucasian Phasis, has ceased 

 to deserve its name. The climate is that of 

 Southern Italy, minus the sirocco, and can 

 give one an idea what weather the coast- 

 lands of the Mediterranean may have en- 



joyed before the destruction of the great 

 sylvania which once stretched from the 

 Black Sea to the shores of the Atlantic. 



BEAR-DENS OF THE ANDES. 



A curious instance of zoological isola- 

 tion is the existence of bears in the Andes 

 of Southern Chili. How did they get 

 there? If by migration from the California 

 Sierras, why did they not establish half- 

 way colonies in Mexico and Ecuador, 

 where a complete stock of assorted cli- 

 mates might have been secured at pre-emp- 

 tion rates? But they must have hastened 

 on till they could see their noontide shadow 

 as plain as in British North America, and. 

 like the brook-trout of New Zealand, have 

 now to solve the problem of survival at a 

 distance of 6,000 miles from the homes of 

 their next relatives. 



