A little tb6 hijgh. I liiade allowance tin his mis^, afi'.-l 
aiming ahead fired. The bullet struck 2ft. ahead and a 
little high. My next shot went just ove.r him, and Andy's 
jtist underneath him. Taking careful aim fot ray third 
trial, I held the bead of the front sight just underneath his 
outstretched nose and pressed the triger. As the smoke 
cleared away I saw Andy take his rifle down from his 
shoulder with a decidedly disappointed air, for he would 
have liked to kill the big buck himself, and he said rue- 
fully, 'Well, you got him that time.' Sure enough, there 
the big fellow lay, motionless in the snow. 
"A quick run down the mountain, a hard climb up the 
opposite side, and we stood alongside the biggest deer 
either of us had ever seen. It was with an indescribable 
thrill, such as only a hunter feels after a hard but suc- 
cessful stalk, that went through me as I gazed on the 
fallen monarch and noted the fine symmetry and broad 
expanse of the great antlers and the graceful outlines of 
the monster form. 
" 'You might hunt twenty years and never kill another 
such animal,' said Andy. 'He is the biggest buck that was 
ever killed in these parts, and those horns go away ahead 
of anything I ever saw'; and he stretched his arm across 
them. By bringing the tips of the antlers on one side 
into his armpit he could just touch the opposite side with 
his outstretched fingers. 'Over 32in. across,' he said. 
"We dressed the big fellow, and after several unsuc- 
cessful efforts, for it seemed as if he weighed Soolbs., 
hung him up. After carefully looking him over, Andy 
guessed his weight at 24Slbs., while I guessed 5lbs. less. 
"It was just at nightfall that we arrived in sight of our 
little cabin, and I can tell you no place ever looked more 
homelike than that dingy little hut. It didn't take long 
to build a fire out of pitch knots, and then our Thanks- 
giving dinner, of which roast venison was the principal 
dish, was one of the best I ever ate. 
"The next day we got a big, strong pack-horse from 
the ranch, and it took us till long after dark to get the 
big buck out of the mountains. We weighed him care- 
fully at the ranch, and he tipped the scales at just 249lbs., 
and his antlers measured just 32in. across. The weight 
was all solid meat, too, for when I skinned hun I found 
scarcely any fat on him. If he had been killed six weeks 
sooner, when in his summer condition, he would have 
weighed at least 75lbs. more. When I cut him up I found 
that my bullet had entered his body pretty well up and 
half way back from the shoulder, and ranging forward 
and across, had just creased his backbone and lodged 
in his shoulder, making a wound that was instantly fatal. 
R. C. FisK. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Rapid Changes in "Westefn Regions. 
Chicago, 111., July 20.— It was some three or four years 
ago, after a rather careful study of the upper Wisconsin 
region, that I made the prediction in these columns that 
this Wisconsin section had seen its best days, more 
especially as a muscallunge country and a prime fishing 
region, I remarked then in these columns that the State 
of Minnesota would be the next Western region to be in- 
cluded in the sweep of sporting travel. This prediction at 
the time created certain comment, more especially from 
some persons who thought that Minnesota was already 
shot out and fished out. Yet there seems to have been 
some justice in the statements made at that time. In a 
very few rapid years the State of Minnesota has sprung 
into the most prominent position of all our Western sport- 
ing regions. Ten years ago it was all Wisconsin. Now it 
is all Minnesota, and with every month the tide of sport- 
ing travel to that State increases. It may be added that, so 
far from the State proving itself to be barren of shooting 
and fishing grounds, there has been found within its con- 
fines a region so vast and so inviting as to be eminently 
fit to be set apart permanently as a recreation ground for 
the American people. The very fitness of this proposal 
to-day, and the very dangers which render the establish- 
ment of a Minnesota forest reserve a necessity immediate 
if it is to be a possibility at all, go to show better than 
anything else could do the extreme rapidity of the 
changes in Western sporting grounds. History does not 
repeat itself in these respects. It multiplies itself. If we 
are to preserve the American game and the American 
game regions, the time to act is now, and not five years 
or one year later. 
Minnesota Reserve Ably Handled, 
In this connection it is pleasant to be able to say only 
good words regarding the movement for the proposed 
Minnesota forest reserve. It has certainly been handled 
in a most able way thus far. The credit for this belongs 
largely to Col. J. S. Cooper, of Chicago. The movement 
was practically begun in the first week of May, hardly 
more than two months ago. To-day it has reached a 
point when the leading dailies East and West are giving 
the matter editorial attention, as well as extended news 
mention. The plans for putting the Congress of the 
United States in full possession of details regarding that 
region have been carried out admirably, and on so gen- 
erous a scale as to render insignificant earlier individual 
efforts on similar lines. The preliminary organization is 
advancing on perfectly sane and well-considered lines, and 
indeed in- every detail it would be difficult to point out 
anything left to be desired. It is still a long way from 
here to the end, and the successful end, but whatever may 
be the result, it may be said even at this stage that the 
fight for the forest reserve was a good one, and handsome- 
ly carried on. 
The First Meeting. 
The first meeting of the preliminary organization will 
be held at 125 Michigan avenue, Chicago, on the evening 
of Tuesday next, July 25. The call has been sent out by 
Col. Cooper. With the call there is inclosed to each gen- 
tleman a "broadside" embodying full details regarding 
the proposed movement, the boundaries and characteristics 
of the countrj' intended to be included, a map of the 
region and a collection of editorials from leading journals 
such as the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Times-Herald, 
the Minneapolis Tribune, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the 
Minneapolis Times, the Rochester, N. Y., Post and Ex- 
press, the Hartford Post, etc. The organization will send 
out this c&llectioil gI details, vevy iritetestitig and valti- 
able, to any who may ask for it. 
At the meeting on next Tuesday night there will be 
elected a temporary president and secretary, and also a 
committee on membership, who will suggest names of 
gentlemen in adjoining States who are interested in thi.s 
movement. In its final shape the "Itasca A.ssociation" 
will be a dignified and representative body. Its work will 
then be rapidly pushed, and before snow flies we shall per- 
haps know the fate of this movement, one way or another. 
Legal Objections and Difficulties. 
Col. j. S. Cooper, the generous enthusiast who has 
taken the practical lead of this movement, is an attorney 
of attainments, and it has happened that in his practice he 
has more than once been concerned with cases involving 
private rights on Indian reservations, some of these cases 
having been fought through the highest courts of the land. 
In response to an invitation from a St. Paul gentlemau. 
Col. Cooper has gone into this matter from a legal stand- 
point, and has endeavored also to assemble all the objec- 
tions which would naturally be made by parties whose 
interests render them antagonistic to this movement. _ It 
may be well to present the Colonel's brief on these points 
in an extended form, as follow^s : 
Chicago, July 14. — Dear Sir: In answer to your in- 
quiries respecting the project for a national forest reserve 
in northern Minnesota, I have to say, as to your first ques- 
tion. What is the legal situation as to the lands within 
the proposed boundaries, their ownners and present resi- 
dents as affecting the plan ? my opinion is as follows : 
FIRST— A6 TO THE LANDS STILL OWNED BY THE NATIONAL 
GOVERNMENT. 
Those lands are entirely subject to the control of Con- 
gress, to be sold, donated or devoted to any public use. 
That a public park is a public use, was decided by the 
Supreme Court of the United States in the case where, by 
act of Congress, Rock Creek Park was established in the 
District of Columbia, and authority was given to purchase 
or condemn the lands lying within the boundaries of the 
park. 
(Shoemaker vs. United States, 147 U. S. Reps., 282.) 
Among other things, the court said: "The validity of 
the legislative acts erecting such parks, and providing 
for their cost, has been uniformly upheld." 
SECOND — ^AS TO THE LANDS WITHIN THE INDIAN 
RESERVATIONS. 
The Supreme Court of the United States has fully 
affirmed the power of Congress to deal with and regu- 
late the Indians on their reservations and their lands 
within the boundaries of the same. 
See United States vs. Kagama, 118 U. S. Reps., 375, 
and other cases there cited and approved.) 
In the above case the court, among other things, said: 
"The power of the general Government over these rem- 
nants of a race once powerful, now weak and diminished 
in numbers, is necessary to their protection, as well as to 
the safety of those among whom they dwell. It must 
exist in that Government, because it never has existed 
anywhere else, because the theater of its exercise is within 
the geographical limits of the United States, because it has 
never been denied, and because it alone can enforce its 
laws on all the tribes." 
The decisions of the Supreme Court and the acts of 
Congress go to the extent of deciding that the national 
Government has sole power and jurisdiction over the In- 
dians and the lands comprised in their reservations. It is 
therefore clear that Congress has complete authority to 
deal with the lands included in the Indian reservations, 
and either purchase them for a national park or pay to 
the Indians from year to year designated sums by way of 
rental for their joint use by white citizens as a place for 
out of door recreation, enjoyment and health. 
THIRD — ^RESPECTING THE MERCHANTABLE PINE TIMBER 
INTERESTS. 
Those lands, as well as all other property interests 
located within the boundaries of the proposed park, could 
not be taken by the national Government for a park or for 
any other purpose, except by satisfactory arrangements 
with the different owners, or except through condemna- 
tion proceedings by the Government, in which each owner 
must be paid the fair value of his property to be assessed 
by a court and jury, as the same was done in the Rock 
Creek Park in the case above cited. 
Whether, after the Government shall haA'e acquired, in 
addition to its lands already owned, those in the Indian 
reservations and certain other lands belonging to private 
parties, it could acquire the remaining lands within the 
park boundaries by condemnation proceedings where 
amicable arrangements with the owners can not be made, 
is a question which has not been decided by the Supreme 
Court of the United States, so far as I know. 
The case of the Rock Creek Park is clearly in point to 
the extent that private lands may be condemned for a 
public park, and that such "use" is a "public use." But 
in that case the United States exercised the sole govern- 
mental authority over the district in question. _ Here the 
region in which -^uch lands lie is under the jurisdiction 
of the State of Minnesota. 
But there is one aspect of the case which would clearly 
give the United States jurisdiction to condemn these 
lands. 
For over twenty years the general Government, under 
various acts of Congress, has been engaged in building, 
rebuilding, repairing and maintaining large dams at the 
head waters of the Mississippi River, within the proposed 
district, for the sole purpose of reservoiring the water 
against the dry seasons of the year, in order to aid navi- 
gation during these periods. There is no doubt that the 
power exists in the United States to acquire private 
property, by purchase or condemnation, for the purpose 
of improving the navigation of the Mississippi River. By 
how much more then than damming the upper river 
would the volume of water in the lower river be main- 
tained if its sources shall be protected by maintaining the 
natural forests surrounding them? Both science and the 
common experience of mankind unite in the conclusion 
that "Forest floor prevents rapid evaporation and tends to 
turn surface drainage into underground channels, re- 
tards melting snow, and thereby reduces spring floods." 
By so much as the natural forests at the sources oi a 
i-iver are preserved, the volumti of water 111 that riv^n u 
maintained more equally throughout the dry and v^t 
seasons. The region sought to be conserved b}^ establish- 
ing a national park covers the headwaters of the Missis- 
sippi. Therefore the general Government, in order to 
protect the natural forests there in the aid of navigation, 
would have the power to acquire the lands in that region, 
either by purchase or condemnation. 
But I do not consider that phase of the question a 
practical one now. My information, from several of the 
owners of these pine lands, is that if the general Govern- 
ment will protect the whole region from forest fires and 
illegal spoliation by the axe the owners of the merchant- 
able pine are disposed to make such arrangements with the 
Government as will enable the latter to preserve all the 
timber for the park except the merchantable timber, and 
that to be removed under such governmental regulations as 
will not materially mar the beauty and utility of the re- 
mainder of the forest, and especially so as to protect the 
country against forest fires. 
More than that, it is almost certain that many owners of 
pine forests would hold on to a large part of their timber 
as an investment for the future if they had assurance of 
protection from forest fires and illegal spoliation, such as 
would be the case should the United States assume the 
care and control of that region the same as it has in 
the Yellowstone Park. 
The wholesale use of pine for commercial purposes- has 
so denuded our forests that standing pine accessible to 
market is already becoming scarce. A corresponding in- 
crease in the value has ensued. Gauging the next tw^enty 
years by the past twenty, there are few, if anj^ substantial 
investments in the country which are better to hold for 
future markets than merchantable pine near to markets, 
provided it be protected from fire and spoliation. 
So great has been the demand in civilized countries for 
wood and lumber in the past, and as a result prices have 
so advanced, that even in Germany, where the forests are 
protected by law, prices have doubled in about thirty 
years. 
In my judgment it will only be a short time after the 
proposed park should be estabhshed when the merchant- 
able pine in that region will be very greatly enhanced in 
value, on account of the assurances that will be given for 
its protection by reason of the general Government having 
control of that district by its troops. The owners of this 
standing pine can be trusted to see all this and act for 
their own pecuniary interests. 
FOURTH THE LANDS OWNED BY HOMESTEADERS AND IN 
SMALL TRACTS FOR AGRICULTLTRAL PURPOSES. 
The above class is not numerous, nor are it.'; holdings 
large. With a National Park established, and its forests 
thronged Avith visitors for their annual outings, those 
small farmers would find right at home a greater demand 
for their products than they could possibly supply. • The 
fact that their farms would be within the limits of the 
park and would belong to and be cultivated by their 
owners would rather benefit than detract from the utility 
of the park. There are so few of them, and they are so 
widely scattered throughout that wilderness, as to consti- 
tute just what would be wanted if they were not already 
there. 
FIFTH — ^XHE VILLAGES WITHIN THE PROPOSED PARK. 
There are only five villages or towns within the pro-i 
posed boundaries of the park, whose size or importance 
is such as to demand separate consideration. 
At present, practically the sole industry on which each 
of them depends, is the lumber interest. With the present ;' 
rate at which the standing pine is being cut and marketed : 
it win last only a few years longer. A leading lumber- 
man, who spends most of his time in his lumber camps in ; 
Itasca county, told me two years ago when I was up ' 
there that the outside limit to the cutting of the merchant- 
able pine accessible to market in all that region was ten 
years. Since then the East & West Railroad has been ex- 
tended right through that region and all the pine forests 
about Cass, Winnibigoshish and Bemidji lakes made easy 
for marketing. Unless something be done, such as con-' 
templated, a very few years will see the end of all that 
industry, and then those five towns wall go the way of 
Goldsmith's Deserted Village, just like their predecessors, 
have in northern Maine, Michigan and Wisconsin. 
On the other hand, if the park be established those towns 
will still have the lumber interests to depend on for a 
much longer period than otherwise would be the case, and 
in the meantime would have the business which necessarily, 
would follow the large numbers of people who every 
summer and autumn would throng that region for its 
salubrious climate, its majestic forests, its sparkling lakes 
and its abundant fish and game. 
That park can be reached by rail within twenty-four 
hours by over 20,000,000 people living in prairie regions 
or districts in which the natural forests have been de- 
stroyed. The great multitudes which throng the Yellow- 
stone Park and the Adirondack State Park of New York; 
attest the love of our countrjmien for natural scenery and 
their hunger for forests, lakes and streams in their yearly, 
outings. 
The elevation of the region at the headquarters of the 
Mississippi is equal to or greater than those regions in 
the Adirondacks niost frequented by tourists. By reason, 
of the vast stretches of native forests of pine, cedar and 
other balsamic trees still standing it has been ascer- 
tained, not only by medical and other scientific authority, 
but by personal experience, such as I, with many others, 
have had, that the region around the headwaters of the 
Mississippi has an atmosphere of marvelous effect upon 
diseases brought on from impurity of the blood; and 
those embrace most of "the ills which flesh is heir to." 
No one has any right to predict with certainty what 
the effect of the creation of the proposed national park 
will be upon those five towns. We can only draw con- 
clusions in this case from the influences which the Yel-, 
lowstone Park has had upon the railroad towns near the 
entrances to that Park, and all my information is to the. 
effect that they have prospered wonderfully. 
To sum up this is the situation which surrounds all that 
region and controls all the interests there. They have the 
last great stretches of natural forests accessible to large 
centers of population left in this country. The wealth oil 
the region chiefly consists in its standing, merchantable 
pine, which will last, under present conditions, for only 2, 
brief period. If it shall be cut 'n the future as it has ir. 
