Morning journal and courier., 1881-01-22
Large Game in the Northwest.

IHalIock (Ndinn.) Letter to the Chicago Field.]
 Elks are abundant here, just as they used to be everywhere throughout the Red River Valley. They like to browse by the river side, where they find the swamp willows and the succulent varieties of poplar and bass wood alternating to the prairie grass when they need change of diet. Several were killed within few miles of Hallock last win ter Up to ten years ago they were common all over western and southern Minnesota, by no means confined to timber, but roaming the prairies in considerable bands. These horns which you see in so many houses and barrooms and on stables and pilot houses of steamboats are chiefly trophies of this recent period
 In Dakota they are still numerous enough, but they are far to reach and not easily killed when found. Probably there is no place anywhere at present where the splendid ami mai can be reached with such facility as by the wagon road from Hallock. You have only to prepare yourself with camp stove, cooking utensils and the ordinary outfit of blankets and provisions, take good Indian saddle pony that will stand fire, guide and wagon, and Eight out" I forgot to say that you want warm hunting suit of dead grass or yellowish brown color; be particu- lar about this. The best method of hunting elks is by stalking. By elks mean the Ger gaLs c0nGdensis, and not the moose, although the moose are found here too, as are also an
  | qndcr0is) There is skin of 8 mule deer l now hanging in the carpenters shop at Hal lock-
 One of the most interesting facts relating | to the distribution of our large fauna is the discovery of an abundance of moose (A6c Ame7TcanG) in northern Minnesota. They are smaller than the moose of Maine and the Provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick and | Nova Scotia, but are as numerous, perhaps, | as in the eastern ranges. The Indians fre- 1 quently bring the meat to market, and with l in the past two years heads and antlers have become 8 valuable commodity for natural | history specimens.
 Although in the early part of the century | the moose was almost universally distributed | throughout the swamps and forests of Nortt l America, north of the forty-third parallel o1 | latitude, it has been believed that his present
 habitat had become restricted to the Cana | dian provinces on the east, and to the coun | try west of the Rocky Mountains. which iel
 north of Wyoming. That there is an exten 1 sive intermediate tract over which he roams | is now evident, but whether his range is stll | unbroken and continuous from the Atlantic l to the Pacific may well be questioned. I'm l moose is not strictly a migratory animal, fo | it never leaves it's native ground for strang l lands and woods. It is probably local il I northern Minnesota and the adjoining prov | ince of Kewatin. Those hunters who are il
 quest of big game will rejoice that new ant
 untried field for their prowess has beel found No better region adapted to the want
 of the moose than this can be imagined, fo
 the forest is interspersed with swamps ant
 marshes Water is quite abundant, and tn
 deciduous trees afford the kind of brows
 upon which he delights to feed. Shows d.
 not fall to a depth to reduce him t the dernier resort of esyarding" The leave
 fall early in October, and thus afford grea
 advantage for calling in the best of the sea
 son Stalking is also favorite method fol
 hunting the moose, and often good do
 may be employed to advantage.