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April 9, 1910.] FOREST AND STREAM. 
An Early Spring Ramble. 
Minneapolis, Minn., April 2. —Editor Forest 
and Stream: Spring with all her beauty and 
cheer has dawned upon this Northern State and 
nature is awakening from her long winter sleep 
and is preparing to deck the land in her dainty, 
lavish regalia. 
The pussy willows have graced the brookside 
wands and in the woods the buds have felt the 
sun’s genial warmth and are slowly swelling. 
The icy fetters of the brooks have weakened 
and the ice cakes, glittering in the sunlight, are 
flowing away over the swelling tide. On every 
hand is some sweet reminder of the cheerful 
season that is about to begin. The thieving crow 
flies across the azure sky and may be seen in 
wood and field, sometimes singly and sometimes 
in bands. Within the last few days robins have 
appeared and have already entertained me with 
their mellow songs. Of all the signs of spring 
the arrival of the robins is perhaps the most 
eagerly awaited and heartily welcomed. In ten 
days more the annual migration will be on in 
earnest and woods and byways will be filled 
with the red-breasted songsters. 
The bluebirds also have come, bag and bag¬ 
gage. A pair came to the trees outside of my 
study window this morning and sent up their 
plaintive notes. 
The weather holds out good and warm. We 
may undoubtedly have several snow storms, but 
the snow will not last long under the influence 
of the sun. Owing to the fact that there was 
little or no frost in the ground this winter, as 
soon as the snow melted it sank into the ground 
and now the earth for the most part is dry un¬ 
derfoot. 
This afternoon I took down my small cari- 
ber rifle with the intention of spending a few 
pleasant hours with my most cherished friend— 
Dame Nature. Pocketing my notebook, I went 
down the road to the creek, the dogs accom¬ 
panied me, my steadfast companions. The creek 
is high, for the ice has melted rapidly. Last 
year it overflowed its banks and became a great 
pond, stretching from meadow to meadow, but 
this year it has remained within its bounds. 
Leaving the stream I passed on along the 
road. Now that the Snow has fled, what bar- 
reness it revealed. Here we see where the field 
mouse has run his tunnels through the grass, 
clipping the blades as he went, and here and 
there are the little dome-shaped nests so warmly 
made. The lover of nature recalls the days 
when the bitter north wind was raving over the 
bleak, gray fields and wonders if the little mice 
were comfortable in their snug homes. It was 
amusing to see the dogs catch the little things 
under the dwindled snowbanks. Often they 
located them and dexterously seized them as they 
ran for safety. The numbers of these little 
creatures are amazing, and were it not for the 
wild animals and hawks they would do much 
damage. I entered a wood and sauntering down 
the path was greeted by a great commotion 
among a band of crows. I counted seven of 
them. They were worrying the life out of a 
hawk that sat motionless on a branch. Upon 
my appearance there was consternation among 
the black robbers. I shot one of the crows and 
the others quickly took wing as did also the 
hawk. Another person might have killed the 
hawk instead of the crow, but I have a good 
opinion of the former as a destroyer of insects 
and mice. 
Continuing into the midst of an oak thicket 
the dog treed a red squirrel which I brought to 
earth from the topmost branch by a clean shot. 
Meanwhile I heard one barking off to the right 
while the other dog treed two in another sec¬ 
tion of the copse. A careful shot dislodged the 
second one, and pocketing it I made my way to 
the other tree. There were three there and they 
were evidently mating, for they were eagerly 
pursuing a female and uttering peculiar noises. 
Without moving in my tracks I shot the two 
nearest and missed the third by a scant margin 
as he darted into a hole. No further luck in 
that wood, I descended the hillside to the swamp 
where I noticed two plump old muskrats seated 
on the ice in front of their house. Muskrats are 
worth up to seventy-five cents a pelt this spring 
and trappers, if industrious, will not go with 
empty pockets this season. I could have shot 
the rats, but instead I watched them as they 
gnawed at the roots they occasionally dove down 
after. Now and then they rose on their haunches 
and looked around to listen. Stealing away I 
traversed the hill and met a trapper who has run 
a line of traps within the limits of the city this 
winter with amazing luck. He caught upward 
of 200 muskrats, sixteen mink and other animals 
along the Minnehaha alone and within the con¬ 
fines of a great city like Minneapolis. We had 
a long talk and when we parted I mentioned the 
rats I had seen on the swamp. 
Robert Page Lincoln. 
Spring in New England. 
Orange, Conn., April 2. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: Nearly two months ago the skunk 
cabbage began his asqent toward the regions of 
the upper air. A little later appeared the curi¬ 
ous parti-colored horns and within them the tiny 
flowerets whose multitude makes up for their 
minuteness. The unexampled mildness of March 
has hurried forward vegetation. The green of 
springing grass shows in the brown of winter’s 
faded fields, which now suggest the robe of a 
grizzly bear where the darker color below shows 
through the whitish tips of the longer hairs. 
The earliest blossoms have already started. 
Along the brook side the yellow flowers of the 
marsh marigold nod over the black waters and 
shine bright amid the pale green leaves. The 
opening blossoms of the red maple tinge with 
vivid color the foliage of the swamps we look 
down on. In their depths the naked spice bush 
bears a hundred yellow flowers, while on warm 
slopes anemone and hepatica wave their deli¬ 
cate blossoms in the gentle wind. Pussy willow 
blooms are as large as a man’s thumb and the 
long catkins of white birch and alder sway in 
the breeze. 
The birds have not been misled by the warm 
weather, and as yet only those of early April 
have come—phoebes, robins, bluebirds and the 
early sparrows. Tree sparrows and blue snow¬ 
birds have left us. Weeks ago the flocks of 
migrating blackbirds were seen passing over¬ 
head on the wings of the south wind. Most of 
them have gone on, but now by many a little 
piece of water is heard the gurgling sqng of 
those which are to remain with us. Crows are 
ushering in the mating season with tremendous 
outcry and their usual spring evolutions. Al¬ 
ready they are carrying building twigs in their 
flight. Within a few days the white-bellied swal¬ 
lows will be seen and within a month the great 
horde of migrants will come and early May will 
see the warbler season almost at its height. 
Orange. 
Jasper Park, Canada’s New Game 
Preserve. 
In accordance with the progressive policy of 
the Canadian Government, Jasper Park was 
some time ago set aside, in the Yellowhead 
Pass. This park contains over 6,000 square 
miles, and will be not only a gigantic game pre¬ 
serve, but a great forest reserve. Three game 
guardians, one of whom is a justice of the 
peace, and two Northwest Mounted policemen 
patrolled Jasper Park through the winter, look¬ 
ing after the preservation of game and the tim¬ 
ber interests. It will thus be seen that Western 
Canada in the regions which it has set aside for 
preserves is making great advances, and the 
United States may well consider the example of 
its northern neighbor and attempt to emulate it. 
The improvement of Jasper Park, in the Yel¬ 
lowhead Pass, will be undertaken by the Domin¬ 
ion Government under the direction of Howard 
Douglas, as soon as the Grand Trunk Pacific 
has completed its line west of Edmonton into 
the park. 
“I expect that the railway will be completed 
in there next spring,” said the park commis¬ 
sioners, “and we will start at once to lay out 
the grounds. It will make equally as fine a park 
as now exists at Banff.” 
The enterprise of five business men of Fort 
Saskatchewan and Edmonton, who undertook 
under a $5,000 bond with the Dominion Govern¬ 
ment to establish a game park at Elk Park, 
Lamont, forty miles east of Edmonton, has met 
with success which exceeds the expectations of 
the officials of the Government, according to a 
report which will be issued shortly by Howard 
Douglas, Dominion Commissioner of Parks, who 
has just completed a canvass of the amount of 
game in the park. 
Four years ago these gentlemen, Messrs. F. 
A. Walker, M. P. P., E. Simmons, John Cars- 
cadden and Judge Lees, of the Fort, and W. H. 
Cooper, of Edmonton, entered into a bond with 
the Hon. Frank Oliver, Minister of the Interior, 
to establish in the park twenty head of elk and 
as many more black-tailed deer. In considera¬ 
tion of this the Government was to fence the 
park and maintain it as a game park. The min¬ 
ister of the interior was doubtful of the suc¬ 
cess of the venture, however, and a year ago 
demanded and secured an annulment of the 
agreement. 
It appears now that according to the canvass 
recently completed the undertaking met with great 
success. There are in- the park twenty-seven 
head of elk, thirty head of black-tailed deer 
and three moose. This makes the elk park one 
of the finest game parks in the Dominion. 
“The Dominion Government is preparing to 
open a new park just south of Pincher Creek 
on the Alberta boundary,” said Mr. Douglas. 
“The park will be known as the Kootenay Lakes 
Park and will be very beautiful. The new park 
will cover over two townships and will be opened 
early next summer. It has already been used 
to a certain extent by the people in the south 
country as a summer resort.” 
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