846 
FORBBT AND_ STREAM. 
[MaV s, 1906. 
that they all seemed agreed upon, and that was that the 
weakling should have no mercy. 
; I thought of Wall Street as I turned away and made 
for home. Frank Moonan. 
New York, April 11. 
The Minnesota Park. 
Me. Lacey submitted to the House last week a report 
from the Committee on Public Lands recommending the 
appomtment of a commission of three members from the 
House and three from the Senate to investigate the condi- 
tions existing on the Chippewa Indian Reservation in 
northern Minnesota, with reference to carrying out the 
plan of converting the Indian lands into a public park. 
Should the Senate concur in the joint resolution provid- 
ing for such a commission it is to be assumed that the 
• matter may be reported upon at the next session. The 
future of the park project depends largely upon the com- 
position of the commission. The report submitted by Mr. 
Lacey reads : 
The Committee on the Public Lands, to whom was re- 
ferred H. J. Res. 232, concerning Chippewa Indian Re- 
servation in Minnesota, beg leave to submit the following 
report and recommend that said resolution do pass with 
amendments : 
Your committee have considered the propositions em- 
braced in this joint resolution and believe that an investi- 
gation ought to be made by a suitable commission to de- 
termine the propriety of the proposed national park, and 
' also the means to be adopted to obtain the control of the 
necessary land, and also as to how far the proposed park 
could be occupied by the Indians as a home. The ques- 
tions involved in the proposed resolution can be best 
investigated by a small commission, with authority to 
confer with the Indians and look in person over the 
ground, and we therefore recommend that the bill be 
amended by reducing the number of the commission to six 
— three from each House — and reducing the appropriation 
from $10,000 to $5,000, amending the resolution therefore 
as follows : 
The headwaters of the Mississippi River are now 
protected by natural forests, so far as the region in 
question is 'concerned. There is much valuable timber 
on this land, and of course many persons desire to cut and 
remove the same so as to convert the value of the timber 
into money. 
The usual method of removing pine from this northern 
country has resulted in leaving an absolute waste and 
charred and blackened stumps as the only evidence of the 
former existence of the forest itself. If the pine is to 
be removed from this land it ought to be taken out upon a 
different plan from that which has been used by private 
individuals in their timber operations. 
In France vast sums of money are now being ex- 
pended in reforesting the mountains which have been 
denuded, and where the gravelly soil has begun to wash 
down into and destroy the valleys below. Enormous sums 
of money are now being expended to restore these moun- 
tains to their natural conditions as nearly as may be. In 
northern New York the State has acquired a large area of 
the Adirondacks in order to preserve the waters of the 
Hudson, and has expended nearly $4,000,000 for that 
purpose. 
If the timber around the headwaters^ of the Mississippi 
is entirely removed the Government will, no doubt, here- 
after be called upon to restore it as nearly as practicable 
to the original state, and to expend a much larger sum 
than is now necessary to preserve it in that condition. 
Large amounts of money have already been expended for 
the creation of reservoirs in that locality to prevent great 
floods in the spring and to preserve a supply of water for 
midsummer and fall. Nature does this in a large degree 
where the forests are left in their natural condition. A 
vfery large proportion of the land included in the 833,000 
acres is already embraced in the limits of lakes and ponds. 
The timber preserves the springs supplying these lakes 
and streams, and the general provisions of the proposed 
plan therefore meet the approval of the committee. 
The details of working out the plan, in view of the 
rights of the Indians, and many other matters, render a 
careful examination necessary before the bill should be 
enacted into law, The investigation by a sub-committee, 
or a small commission, such as the resolution as amended 
proposes, would, in our judgment, be the easiest way of 
getting at the actual facts and surroundings and enable 
Congress to act intelligently on the question. 
We therefore recommend the passage of the resolution 
with the amendments which we have suggested. 
Iowa State Sportsmen's Association* 
Secretary L. C. Abbott sends out to the sportsmen of 
Iowa this appeal for co-operation and support: 
"Meet with us at this convention. Assist us m perfect- 
ing, stronger than ever, this Association. Let us join 
together and work for the one end— 'Protection of our 
game and fish.' We are confronted every session of the 
Legislature with possible game laws, and it is our duty 
to assist or defeat these measures, as the case warrants. 
The appropriation for game and fish protection was in- 
creased from $9,000 to $15,000 the past winter. This 
was a step in the right direction. We want the conven- 
tion to meet in Marshalltown two hundred strong. Ques- 
tions of importance will come up for your consideration. 
. Tuesday evening, 8:30, May 22, igoo." 
■ A Kansas City Italian was arrested recently for selling 
a skinned cat for a rabbit. He finally admitted that the 
animal was a possum, whereupon the judge became great- 
ly interested. 
"What did you skin it for?" he asked. 
"Always skina da possum," replied the Italian. 
"Now, now, now," said the judge, "that'll do, that'll 
do. This court knows more about possums than that. 
You don't skin possums. You scald 'em and take the 
hair off, like you do a hog. The idea— skin a possum! 
I'll fine you only $1 and costs this time, but if you ever 
come before me again with a story about skinning a. 
possum I'll fine you $100 for unpardonable ignorance, jtf 
for nothing else. Call the nex.t case." 
Big Game of the Far North. 
In the year 1897 Mr. A. J. Stone, for whom Prof. 
Allen named the black sheep of the North, applied to the 
American Museum of Natural History for assistance m 
making another trip to the Arctic. After due considera- 
tion the pecuniary aid desired was generously furnished 
by Mr. James M. Constable, of the museum, and on July 9, 
1897, Mr. Stone set out from Seattle, Wash., for Fort 
Wrangel in Alaska. During more than two years of 
arduous travel in the north, in which Mr. Stone covered 
a great deal of country, following the coast west from the 
moutn of the Mackenzie River to Herschel Island, and 
from the mouth of the Mackenzie east far beyond Frankhn 
Bay, he returned to Seattle, which he reached m Septem- 
ber, 1899. . , 
A very large part of the country traversed was prac- 
tically unexplored, although over much of it the fur 
trader had worked along the stream and of late years 
the prospector has entered it. It is country that has been 
mapped before, but imperfectly mapped, and Mr. Stone 
was able to correct many of the errors of earlier travelers. 
Mr. Stone visited the home of most of the larger mam- 
mals of the far North, and takes a gloomy view of the 
prospects of their survival for any considerable length 
of time. In the Bulletin of the American Museum of 
Natural History there is published an abstract of his ob- 
servations on these species, from which we take the fol- 
lowing remarks. Mr. Stone tells us that he has supple- 
mented his, own experience by information derived from 
various oificers of the Hudson's Bay Company, and 
from intelligent white and Indian hunters, and the notes 
have been edited by Dr. J. A. Allen. Their importance 
and interest warrant for them as wide a circulation as 
possible : 
Bison bison athabasccs, Rhoads. Wood Bison. — The 
bison, generally spoken of as wood bison, is almost ex- 
tinct. The most reliable information obtainable indicates 
that a small herd, containing fifteen to twenty animals, 
exists in the Hay River country, long. 117° W. and lat. 
59° N., a little to the west of Great Slave River. I was 
repeatedly informed that there was a similar herd to the 
east of Great Slave River, a little further north than the 
Hay River herd, but I have some doubt of its existence. 
The furthest north to which I could trace these animals 
is the Black River country, where a solitary old bull was 
killed some years ago, a short distance south of Fort 
Liard, about long. 130° W. and lat. 60° N. 
The Canadian Government is making an effort to pro- 
tect the few that remain, but it will doubtless be in- 
effective, it being impossible to police these remote regions 
against the inroads of the Indians, who kill the bisons at 
every opportunity. I very much question whether the 
small remnant now existing will be able to hold out 
against existing conditions for more than a few years. 
Probably three years will accomplish their complete ex- 
termination. 
I visited Fort Liard with the intention of securing 
specimens for the American Museum of Natural History, 
but found that to attempt it might involve me in un- 
pleasant legal proceedings and possibly lead to serious 
difficulties in the further prosecution of my work. 
Ovibos moschatus, Blainville. Musk-Ox. — I found no 
trace of these animals anywhere, except in the very hilly, 
rough country southeast of Cape Lyon. Nearly all the 
signs of them I found indicated that their favorite^ feed- 
ing ground in winter is along the slopes of hills just a 
little above the valleys, where they browse freely on the 
little patches of dwarf willows. It was also quite evident 
that when moving from one feeding ground to another 
they almost invariably travel single file. 
Their range is becoming more and more contracted all 
the time, as roving bands of Indians from the Hudson 
Bay posts, on Great Slave Lake and near Great Bear Lake, 
make occasional raids upon them, and almost always 
destroy the entire herd attacked. 
The result of extensive inquiry among the Indians and 
Eskimo west of the Mackenzie leads me to believe that the 
musk-ox has not inhabited that region for a very long 
period. Indeed, only a few of the Kookpugmioots east of 
the Mackenzie have any knowledge of their ever having 
been seen west of Anderson River, or anywhere between 
that river and the Mackenzie. Their western limit is now 
far to the east of Anderson River and Liverpool Bay. 
Ovis stonei, Allen. Stone's Motmtain Sheep; Black 
Sheep. — The range of Ovis stonei extends throughout the 
Cassiar Mountains, and in the Rocky Mountains, east of 
the Cassiar, north to where Beaver River, a tributary of 
Liard River from the north and west, breaks through the 
Rockies near latitude 60°. I believe that the Rocky Moun- 
tain divide, between the headwaters of the Peace River 
and those of the Fraser River, forms the dividing line 
between its range ahd that of the southern Ovis cervina. 
Its western limit very nearly conforms to the Cassiar 
Mountains and their numerous spiirs. 
The feeding grounds of both Ovis stonei and 0. dalli 
are above timber line. Their habits vary -materially, in 
both species, with sex and age, especially in summer. Old 
and young, however, congregate together in the fall and 
winter. During winter they frequent the highest ridges, 
where the wind keeps the ground free of snow. 
Ovis dalli, NelsOn. Dall's Mountain Sheep; White 
Sheep. — This beautiful inhabitant of boreal America occu- 
pies two separate and distinct ranges, namely: (i) the 
Alaskan Mountains and the Kenai Peninsula; and (2) the 
entire stretch of the Rocky Mountains north of latitude 
60°, to near the Arctic coast west of the Mackenzie, rang^ 
ing thence west -to the headwaters of the Noatak and 
Kowak rivers, that flow into Kotzebue Sound. 
Along the Arctic coast they are subject to the same per- 
secution as the caribou of this region (as detailed below), 
and will in a few years be only a memory of the past. 
Further south, through that portion of their range in- 
cluded in the Rockies, their future is only slightly more 
hopeful. In the Nahanna Mountains (a spur of the 
Rockies, in about 60° N. lat.), and in the main Rockies 
about lat. 69° N., the natives reported them as vei-y much 
scarcer than formerly, and the old trails, in the country 
traveled by me, indicated that a much larger number of 
these animals formerly existed there. 
I found these animals everywhere above the timber 
line and almost always occupying the most rugged parts 
of the mountains, the males particularly favoring the most 
rugged and rocky ridges. 
Five out of twenty-two specimens shot by me tumbled 
over precipitous walls into inaccessible places and were 
lost. One of the lost five was found in a bunch of three 
resting on a ledge, seemingly not over a foot wide, on the 
face of a cliff fully 2,000 feet high, from base to summit. 
They were not over 150 feet from the crest of the summit, 
over which I leaned and watched them, unobserved, for 
some time. How they reached the place or left it I could 
not tell. I had one of my Indians drive them out by 
throwing stones down, and as I heard them running 
below I followed along the brink. When they finally ap- 
peared at the top I was a considerable distance from them. 
I fired at the first two to appear and failed to score, but 
being a little nearer when the third one came in sight, my 
bullet caught him fair; he gave two leaps to the right, 
fell and toppled over the brink and down for a hundred 
yards. We could descend part of the distance to where 
he lay, but there was a space beyond so steep and high 
that it was impossible to pass over it even with ropes ; yet 
it was just here that the sheep had climbed up. 
This was my first effort on this hunting ground, and the 
result was just a little discouraging, inasmuch as my party 
had not tasted food during the past thirty hours. I was 
myself tired and hungry, for during this thirty hours I 
had carried a pack across the mountains some ten 
miles, and had been on the tramp climbing and hunting 
for sheep all the rest of that time, with the exception of 
about three hours, it being so light that we could hunt 
night or day; but there was nothing to do but try again. 
Slowly working our way around the point over sharp 
rocks in our moccasined feet, with thoughts of another 
day without food uppermost in my mind, I was almost 
startled bv three big rams running out from a clump of 
rocks, only a short distance ahead of us, and passing so 
quickly out of sight around another clump as to prevent' 
my getting another shot. It never occurred to me that [ 
I was tired, footsore or hungry, for I was after those 
rams, jumping from rock to rock as fast as my legs could 
carry me. After following them for some distance I got 
in a long-range shot, shooting down a very steep incline, 
and was delighted to see one of the big fellows go down' 
among the rocks ; the other two being further away, and 
offering very poor marks, I did not pursue them. It was 
a difficult task to descend this steep and treacherous slide 
to take care of this specimen, but we gladly went about 
it, and finallv climbed back to the top, through a rain that 
was wetting the rocks and making them slippery. Camp 
was a long way off, but there was fuel there, and we had 
steaks to go with the fuel, which smoothed the road con- 
siderably. 
As this animal has been but little observed by naturalists 
or hunters, I will relate one other adventure, as illustrat- 
ing its wonderful vitality, agility and endurance. One 
of mv Indians came in one night and reported having 
crippled a large ram which he failed to get. The next 
morning I decided we would hunt in that direction, in the 
hope of securing the cripple, as I have the utmost horror 
of leaving a crippled animal of any kind to die a lingering 
death. Reaching. the level top of a high ridge, we skirted 
it for a short distance and then separated into two parties. 
I took with me the Indian who claimed to have crippled 
the ram the day before; in reality, however, I did not 
believe his report. After following along the edge of a 
deep cation for about a mile, he proposed that I should 
watch from above, while he descended to look for th« 
cripple. He had been gone for some time, and was ow\ 
of sight, when I heard hirn halloo ; on running along the 
crest for some distance I finally discovered him making 
his way up the bottom of the canon, calling every few 
steps. I could not at first make out what he was up to, bui 
soon a sheep made its appearance from behind a jutting 
point, and a little later it was plainly to be seen, creeping 
along over the rocks ahead of the Indian, up the ruggec 
canon, seemingly with difficulty. I concluded the Indiai 
could easily get in range and kill the poor beast, and . 
could not at first understand why he did not do so, bu 
I soon came to the conclusion that he had discovered ths 
the easiest way of getting that skin and bones to the tc; 
of the long, hard climb was to drive the animal ahead 
him, knowing that I was at the top and would be on - 
lookout. 
As I proceeded to the head of the cation, in order 
be ready to dispatch the beast on its arrival, I could l 
that one hind leg was broken, and as I watched the P' 
thing jump from one crag to another as it mounted t 
long, steep climb, I felt disgusted with such proceedii:: 
and would have gladly carried up the skin rather than 
the animal suffer, had I been in a position to do so. Whil 
I was thinking what this animal must have suffered dr 
ing the preceding twelve hours, of how exhausted it nii 
be from such a climb on three legs, and wondering ii 
would really get to the top, to my surprise it sudde 
stood on the crest of the caiion wall, 75 or 100 yards c 
tant, fully fifteen minutes sooner than I thought possu 
As it turned toward me and caught sight of me I ra, 
my rifle and fired. It fell, turning completely over; u 
it jumped up and was away across the ridge like a shot 
broken leg swinging like a pendulum at every jump, 
soon as I recovered from my surprise, I followed as v 
as I could run, only to see it disappear over the side of ci: 
next cation ; it circled the side of the cafion wall and too 
a stand on a jiitting ledge of rock, upon which, 1 
shot it, it would topple off down on to the rocks, sev 
hundried feet below, and be ruined as a specimen; s 
feat down to await its possible change of position. Ai 
a Short while my white man and natives arrived, and r 
of them decided to go around and chase him down._ 
they approached him, down he went, apparently as li^ 
^is ever, and another chase took place, lasting imtil 
^vhit€ man was played out. 
From the edge of the cafion I could watch every mo 
twice the native tried his smooth-bore without effect, : 
r began to think the ram would get away from hiin. 
climbed a deep cut between two high turrets in the side • 
the cafion wall nearest me and found its way into a dr-f 
cavity in the side of one of the great natural abutmt 
and lay down. The Indian could not get to the place, 
threw stones at the poor beast until it Van out. As it 
this' big cavity it either had to leap directly down 1 5 
20 feet or pass out by the Indian ; and here was just wi. - 
'it dwplaytfd Its wonderful capabilities in a rabst darim 
