June 4, 1898.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
447 
the snipe had come in by the thousands, and as we were 
riding along they would get up in singles, pairs and half 
dozens, and sometimes whole flocks circled around us. 
As we had nothing but duck shells, they were allowed 
to go unharmed, although some of our party, who had 
enjoyed that kind of sport that morning near the hotel, 
bagged 130 snipe in a few hours. On our arriving at 
the hotel the threatening weather of the past few days 
terminated in a downpour of rain and we concluded 
to return home. We left that evening at 6 o'clock, ar- 
riving at Little Rock the next evening. 
The shooting at Port Arthur is much the same as at 
High Island, except you go over to Johnson's bayou, 
where you charter a boat to take your party across the 
Sabine Lake, taking along rations, blankets and wading 
pants, when the shooting is done at the open places in 
the salt marsh. 
While we did not kill many ducks, we enjoyed fair 
sport at ducks, geese, brant and snipe, a few curlew and 
a very enjoyable trip. Jos. W. Irwin. 
Little Rock, Arkansas. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST* 
Mr. S. F. Fullerton, State agent for Minnesota, is this 
week having fun with County Attorney Bell, the Roseau 
county lawyer, who has been charged with buying 
Minnesota moose, causing them to be entered at the 
customs office on the Canadian line as meat shipped from 
Manitoba, and so claiming exemption from the Minne- 
sota law. The indictment is expected to hold water. 
Mr. De Weese, of Cation City, Colo., one of the best 
posted sportsmen of this country on Alaska game, and 
possessor of one of the finest collections of trophies 
known in the West, started last week for another trip to 
Alaska in search of further sport and additional trophies 
from the land of big heads and big frosts. 
It is a trifle early to speak of chicken country, but next 
fall there will be plenty who Avill wish to learn of some, 
so I shall ask attention to the region about Eau Claire, 
Wis., as a shooting ground. The sportsmen of that city 
do not go to Dakota to find prairie chickens, and need 
usually to drive only a dozen miles or so out into the 
rolling farm country to get fair shooting. All that part 
of the State is farming country, but it also carries bits of 
timber, and swamp, and slough now and then, so that 
the birds manage to hold on. 
This same region about EaU Claire is one which may 
very well be kept in mind as a partridge ground next 
fall. In the old slashings about that town, anywhere 
from five to twenty miles out, the rufifed grouse are yet 
numerous. Bags of ten to twenty-five are not exti'a- 
ordinary, and a dozen to a day's shoot would attract no 
special attention. Quail are also to be found even so 
high up in the State as this point, though the supply 
varies with the severity of the winters. This year there 
are a great many quail in that region. 
Mr. G. F. Winslow, of Eau Claire, tells me of one 
style of sport once practiced by himself which I think 
may be classed as somewhat unusual. He was far up in 
the pine country of upper Wisconsin when he learned 
of the superintendent of one of the big lumber concerns 
that there were a great many partridges in the 
country about. The timber and underbrush together 
made i't impossible to use either dog or gun to any ad- 
vantage, so Mr. Winslow began to think the information 
of little benefit to him, until he was told to take the loco- 
motive and one of the flat cars used in logging opera- 
tions, and make a run out along the logging railroad. 
He "had never before gone shooting with a railroad 
train for a vehicle and a right of way for grounds, but 
adopted the suggestion and pulled out one morning. 
Every few hundred vards a covey of partridges would 
be put up and marked down in the timber not far away. 
Then the locomotive was stopped, and the shooter 
leisurely took dog and gun and went after the game. 
When the cover got too thick, or the birds were not 
located satisfactorily, the engine was started up again 
and they went in search of a new flock of birds. Thus 
some twenty miles or so of road was covered, and a 
splendid bag of grouse secured. A man on foot would 
have no show with the game. I have often heard of 
sportsmen out in Iowa, in the 'old days, shooting praine 
chickens from railroad trains in motion, but these were 
the regular trains of the railroad, and were not run for 
the pleasure of the shooters, and did not stop to gather 
up the game when killed. I believe Mr. Winslow is the 
first sportsman I ever heard of who has been favored 
with a whole railroad for shooting purposes, and that 
in a region where the railroad was practically a neces- 
sity for the sport. E. Hough. 
1206 BoYCE Building, Chicago, 
Some New Hampsliite Notes. 
DuNBARTON, N. H., May 23.— My foxhoutid during 
the spring and summer gives a good deal of his time to 
woodchuck hunting, with an occasional fox chase just 
to keep his hand in. A few days since I found him bark- 
ing at a woodchuck in a pine tree. The tree was about a 
foot in diameter, with branches growing close to the 
ground. The chuck was up some 20ft. and well out to- 
ward the end of a limb. I have heard of woodchucks be- 
ing found up a tree, but always in a tree which was 
leaning at quite an angle. The woodchuck I speak of 
was in a tree growing perfectly straight. 
One afternoon last week I heard my dog chasing a 
fox, and he drove him out into a large field in front of 
my house. The fox ran back and forth in the field for 
some time, the dog at times being within 6ft. of him. It 
was a large dog fox and he seemed to be doing his best 
to get awzy. My hound is rather small and not con- 
sidered fast, but at times it looked as though he would 
catch that fox. Finally the fox jumped over a stone 
wall into some birches and that was the last I saw of 
him. 
There seems to be a fair number of grouse and wood- 
cock. I have seen quite a number of the latter, and 
one day last week I nearly stepped upon a grouse sitting 
on a nest of thirteen eggs. 
The brook trout fishing about here is, of course, noth- 
ing as compared with twenty years ago, but is a wonder 
there are any trout at all, considering how persistently 
every brook is fished. The law prohibits taking trout less 
than 5in. in length, yet a good many trout under that 
size are caught. When a trout of 3 or 4in. gets well 
hooked it will almost invariably kill him, and many fish- 
ermen do not consider it any benefit to put back a dead 
fish. About once a week 1 catch a few trout. Not many, 
but enough for breakfast. Last night after sunset I went 
to a brook near my house and caught live from 34 to 
J^lb. each, and felt I had enough. 
In years past I have caught some large strings of trout 
and made big bags of game, but as the years go on t 
find I am as well satisfied with a dozen fair trout or 
half a dozen grouse aa the result of a day's trip. 
C. M. St.\rk. 
The Minnesota Indian Case; 
Chicago, 111., May 27. — Mention was made last fall in 
these columns of a very interesting case, at that time in 
process of litigation in the State of Minnesota, in which 
the special rights of the Indian to sell game was con- 
tested by the State Fish and Game Commission. At 
that time the confident belief of Executive Agent l^uller- 
ton and his attorney, Hon. T. E. Brynes, was that they 
would win in the upper court, to which they were taking 
the case. They did win. The Supreme Court of Minne- 
sota on the 23d of May handed down a decision which 
covers the situation in a way most satisfactory to the 
State Commission. The decision is a heavy blow to the 
game sellers of Minnesota. The court holds that an 
Indian has no more right to break the game laws than 
any other man. He can kill for his own use, but can not 
dispose of game on any basis different from that which 
obtains for other men. After this the white man who 
has illegal game in his possession cannot expect to be 
excused by the plea that he bought his game of an In- 
dian. 
The case in question is entitled "Julia Selkirk, appel- 
lant, vs. P. O. Stephens et al., respondents." Stephens 
was the warden who seized the game from Julia Selkirk, 
the latter being a licensed trader on the White Earth 
Reservation. 
Under date of May 25 Mr. Fullerton is so good as to 
send me a copy of the above decision In full, and on this 
he makes the following comment. E. HouGfi. 
"No other decision ever handed down by any court 
in the State of Minnesota will bear as much fruit as this 
decision will bear in regard to the preservation of game. 
It_ will do more good than a hundred wardens that we 
might appoint, and while it is in line with what the Game 
and Fish Commission of Minnesota have always con- 
tended, still we have been fotight step by step even by 
the judges on the district bench. 
"This decision places the Indian not aboAfe the white 
man, as some people would have him placed, but on a 
level, and accords him the same privileges that the white 
man enjoys in this State. The readers of Forest and 
Stream Avho do not reside in Minnesota cannot fully 
appreciate what this decision means to us. 
"We have many reservations in the very heart of 
our best game country, and unscrupulous white traders, 
with the assistance of squaw men. hire the Indians regu- 
larly to slaughter all the game they can. They do not 
confine themselves to killing it on the reservations, but 
they always store it away, and when game brings a big 
price in the Eastern markets they then ship it out as 
Indian game, and snap their fingers at us and say we 
cannot touch it. 
"This has been their policy up to two years ago, when 
the commission decided to seize it. This case that has 
been decided was somewhat in the nature of a test case, 
and if they had recovered they would have gotten a good 
many thousand dollars from the State for game we have 
seized. I send you a copy of the decision, which covers 
the ground of our contention. 
"We feel that great credit is due our attorney, Mr. T. 
E. Bj'rnes, of Minneapolis, because he had against him 
Mr. Countryman, of St. Paul, one of the best legal 
minds in the State, and the game dealers have no cause 
to complain that their case was not fought for everything 
that was in it. 
"Step by step we are getting things in shape in Minne- 
sota, and with the few amendments that the conference 
at Chicago made last winter, we will have the best game 
laws of any State in the Union." 
"S. F. Fullerton." 
The text of the decision reads: 
STATE OF MINNESOTA. 
Supreme Court, April Term, A.D. 1898. 
Julia Selkirk, Appellant, vs. P. O. Stephens et al.. Respondents. 
The plaintiff is an Indian and a licensed trader on White Earth 
Reservation. She purchased on the reservation a quantity of game 
killed thereon by tribal Indians, and transported it by wagon off 
the reservation to the nearest railway station and there delivered 
it to a carrier to be shipped out^ of the State. It was 
seized and confiscated while in possession of the carrier by the 
defendants, acting as game warden and game and fish commis- 
sioners of the State. Held that the defendants' acts were legal. 
Order afifirmed. 
OPINION. 
The material facts alleged in the complaint are: 
The plaintiff is an Indian and an actual inhabitant of 
White Earth Indian Reservation, situated within the 
limits of this State, and a trader thereon under a license 
from the United States. Prior to Nov. 19, 1896, as such 
trader she purchased upon the reservation from Indians 
residing thereon, and who were members of the tribes 
located thereon, a quantity of game birds, which were 
killed thereon by such Indians, consisting of prairie 
chickens and partridges of the value of $485. On the 
day named the plaintiff attempted to ship the birds out 
of the State, and did transport them from the reservation 
by wagon to Detroit, Minnesota, the nearest railway sta- 
tion, and there delivered them to the express company for 
carriage out of the State to Eastern States, to be there sold 
by her agents for her account. After the birds had been 
delivered to the express company, and while in its pos- 
session and in process of shipment out of the State, the 
defendant, as game warden of the State, acting under 
the authority of his co-defendants, who constitute the 
Board of Game and Fish Commissioners of the State of 
Minnesota, seized the birds and delivered them to the 
board, and thereupon the defendants, claiming to act as 
such officers, sold the birds and paid the proceeds there- 
of into the treasury of the State. The defendants inter- 
posed a general demurrer to the complaint, which was 
sustained, and the plaintiff appealed from the order sus- 
taining it. 
At the time of this attempted shipment of the birds 
otit of the State the statute of the State for the preserva- 
tion of game contained with other provisions the follow- 
ing: 
"No person at Miy time shall catch, take or kill, or 
have in possession or under control, any of the birds, 
aiiimals or fish caught, taken or killed in this State — 
with intent to ship the same beyond the limits of this 
State, or with intent to allow or aid in their shipment out 
of this State, or shall ship or intentionally allow or aid 
in their shipment out of this State."— G. S., 1894, S. 2,170. 
"It shall be the duty of all members of the Board of 
Game and Fish Commissioners, all game wardens, 
sheriffs and their deputies, constables and police officers 
of this State, at any and all times, to seize and take pos- 
session of any and all birds, animals or fish which have 
been caught, taken or killed at a time, in a manner, or 
for a purpose, or had in possession or under control, or 
have been shipped contrary to any provision of this act. 
Such seizure may be made with or without a warrant." — 
G. S., 1894, S. 2,177. 
This statute makes it unlawful to ship game out of the 
State at any time, and authorizes its seizure and confisca- 
tion if the statute is violated. 
The statute is constitutional. State vs. Northern Paci- 
fic Ex, Co., 58 Minn., 403. Greer vs. Conn., 161 U. S., 
S19. 
It necessarily follows that the seizure in question was 
lawful, and that the complaint does not state the facts 
constituting a cause of action, unless the fact that the 
game was killed on the reservation by Indians exempts 
it from seizure at a place within the State and off the 
reservation, while it is in possession of a carrier for 
shipment out of the State. The question for our decision 
is not, whether our game laws may be enforced against 
Indians so that they may be prosecuted and personally 
purnished for its violation on the reservation. Were this 
the question, it would have to be answered in favor of 
the Indians, for this court in the case of State vs. Camp- 
bell, 53 Minn., 354, rightly held that tribal Indians on 
this reservation are not subject to the criminal laws of 
the State. But the sole question here is the legal status 
of game found off the reservation and m the hands of the 
carrier for shipment out of the State, which was killed 
on the reservation by Indians. The answer to this ques- 
tion involves a determination of the extent of the juris- 
diction of the State over this reservation. 
The White Earth Reservation is not unceded Indian 
country. It was such prior to 1855, but by an act of Con- 
gress approved Dec. 19, 1854, 10 U. S., 598, the Presi- 
dent of the United States was authorized to enter into 
negotiations with the Chippewa Indians for the ex- 
tingishment of their title to all lands owned and claimed 
by them in the territory of Minnesota; the treatise so 
to be made to contain a provision that: 
"The laws of the United States and the Territory of 
Minnesota shall be extended over the Chippewa Terri- 
tory of Minnesota whenever the same may be ceded, and 
that the same shall cease to be 'Indian country' except 
that the land reserved to said Indians, or other property 
owned by them, shall be exempt from taxation and exe- 
cution, and that the act passed June 30, 1834, 'To regu- 
late trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes,' etc., 
be inoperative over the said ceded territory, except the 
2oth section, which prohibits the introductibn ^^nd sale 
of spirituous liquors to Indians." 
Such a treaty was made Feb. 22, 1855, and proclaimed 
April 7, 1855, whereby the Indians ceded to the United 
States all right, title and interest of whatsoever nature, 
which they had in and to a large tract of land therein 
described, and which included all of the land now known 
as White Earth Reservation.- — Rev. Ind. Treaties (1873), 
263. 
This treaty reserved a number of tracts of land which 
were set apart for the homes of the Indians, but there 
was no reservation of the right of the Indians to hunt 
and fish on and over the ceded territory. None of these 
reservations included any lands within the limits of 
AVhite Earth Reservation. A portion of the land now 
included in the last named reservation was set apart for 
the future home of the Indians by treaty of May 7, 1864, 
proclaimed March 20, 1865, and by treaty of March 19, 
1867, proclaimed April 18, 1867, there was set apart for 
the use of the Indians, in order to provide them with a 
suitable farming region, thirty-six townships of land, to 
include White Earth Lake and Rice Lake. — Rev. In- 
dian Treaties, 259 and 271. 
. Under the provisions of the treaty of 1867, what has 
since been known as White Earth Reservation was 
established. The legal effect of the treaty of Feb. 22, 
1855, was that the lands now embraced within the limits 
of White Earth Reservation became public lands of the 
United States, and that every right of the Indians there- 
in became absolutely extinguished. The laws of the 
then Territory of Minnesota became operative over the 
whole territorial limits of the present reservation. When 
the Territory of Minnesota became a State in 1858, the 
jurisdiction of the State was just as complete and ab- 
solute over the other part of the State, except as to 
the sale of spirituous liquors to the Indians. The State 
has never ceded or relinquished any part of this juris- 
diction. 
Such jurisdiction was modified, by the subsequent set- 
ting apart the reservation for the use of the tribal In- 
dians, under the control of the general Government, to 
the extent only that the State cannot tax the property 
of the Indians, nor interfere with the control of such In- 
dians while on this reservation, or punish them for acts 
committed thereon in violation of the laws. This limita- 
tion of the power of the State does not arise from the 
fact that the laws of the State are not operative upon this 
reservation, but it grows out of the personal relations of 
such Indians to the general Governmant. They are its 
wards and under its guardianship and control, and the 
State may not interfere with or impair the efficacy of such 
guardianship. Subject to this limitation all of the general 
laws of the State, including its game laws, are in force . 
in every part of White Earth Reservation. A white tnan 
may be punished by the State for a crime committed 
