The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-08-29
FIVE DAYS TO SHOOT MOOSE.
Great Sport Erpected by Hunters In the Min
nesotn Woods This Fall

MrSNEAPoLIs, Aug. 2s.-Minnesota woods
and waters will furnish this fall the best hunt
ing In years IL the reports from the States
deputy game wardcns-are not at fault. For
ono thing there will be a chance to get shots at
the king Of the deer tribe, the moose. for there
are to be fve days OF open season for moose
and caribou in Minnesota this November. 1t
will DO the first time In many years that these
great animals could be shot lawfully and car
ried away.
The work of the State Game Commission has
been so thorough that poachins has been very
much reduced. and where in years past car.
loads OF game and game hsh were shipped out
all summer to the markets OF Chicago and New
York there have been this year almost no ship
ments at all. Tho Indians Of the fifteen reser-
vations in the State have also been kept under
by the watchtulness OF Chief Warden Fuller
ton and his associates. The Indians have had
an idea that they were above law when 1t came
to a question OF poachins. and they have won
In the courts so often that it has been the hard.
est kind Of work to bring them to q moro mod
crate view Of their rights. As their reserva-
tons arc scattered through the State and are in
the midst OF its finest game preserves indis-
criminate slaughter by them has been worse
than any amount OF poaching by whites. The
Indians have shot deer by many thousands
wa ySe4 W. SNN AA4A~ tSA $500 &~AN NAS A~SA
TO rot in the woods. They have depleted the
Minnesota preserves at "a tremendous rate. bu;
this has all been stopped this summer and very
Little Indian shooting Is now going on.
The same Is true OF other game. Last year
more than lOo.OOO purtriiges were shipped in
two months from the little station OF Tower on
the vermi!!on iron range, where there IS an
Indian reservation, but this year none has been
shipped. The state has now ut work, chiefly
in me chicken districts, 100 deputy wardcns,
and there is very little chicken shooting. The
season opens next month, and the reports are
than In years. The season has been eminentIy
favorable for them high water came early, and
dd not drown out their nests. as II sometimes
happens, and the young birds are large and
strung. As TO h>h. there has not been u ba rrel
shipped out OF The State this season where there
were twenty last year, and the absolute pro-
hibltion OF sales OF bass IN the markets OF the
state has been r!S:d.y enforced. II has been
all imposs!Olllty Tor any one not a fisherman or
the friend OF Il fisherman 10 have bass on his
table i'll Minnesota this year.
Moose are 50 tnick N the northern part Of the
State that any man VINO can hit the walls OF q
barn from the inside OGsnt not 10 have any diff
Guilty in getting one. II he does not have buck
fever in a most Aggravated form. Settlers in
the vicinity OF Grand Rapids, on the upper Mis-
sissippi. say that moose nave been a source OF
great annoyance and trouble 10 taeu this year,
by getting INTO and breaking down and eating
their crops, and many 4 case Is reported where
settlers have been Obliged 10 sit up nights TO
protect their corn and potato heNis- Moose
meat has been sold AT some OF the border and
iron range hotels regularly, but the business
moose nave been caught b. Indian, and sent TO
Eastern parks. Four Of these were taken last
week by Franklin Rockefeller. a brother OF
John D. Rockefeller. and sent 10y steamer from
Duluth TO mis- home at Cleveland. where he has
a large park The consent OF the state Com
mission must be gained before these shipments
ran be made, ami II = claimed that The com.
mission vii! be cnary VI permitting many more
cUnslgniuents.
In The northern part OF Minnesota, between
the lines Of the Du.usA and Iron Range and tho
Duluth. MIsaaoe and northern roads, here are
"A number or moose yards full OF animals, There
are moose tratls without number in that dis.
trict worn down a foot or eighteen inches along
the edges OF swanps and mu>kcgs, where the
fresh tracks OF the great cow feet can be seen
at any time. In this section, hsInnl"d in on tho
side, and the south by the raiiro ids. and TO some
extent on the north by the cham OF towns along
the iron ranges, the moose and caribou have
been steadily increasing for many years. Occa-
sionllly the land loOker. the surveyor, or the
timber estimator runs across them, but 40 keen
Is their sense OF hearing that 1t is almost inn
possible 10 see them before they are away, AMI
the only evidence OF their presence /, the crash
Ing OF the underbrISh and the breaking OF the
bouShs a. the great horn, go crushing their
n moose OF the size OF n cow and with horns
that have a spread OF from four to six feet, can
get through the woods as he does Is one OF tho
mysteries OF tho woods. The muskeSs. As the
woodsmcn, borrowing the Chippewa name, call
the great semi dry swamp grown full OF dead
the traveller at every tootstep. where the feet
sometimes ind no solid foundation. are no oh
stacIe to the king OF the deer, whose big fee
act Ike snOvrhOes, and whose wide antlcrs
part the branches with ease.
SlDhu lIIlDer "DINtI. lHht nave .lhlt-Lcl GER
tain OF the we'll -ettlni parts OF Minnesota for
years, are very thick this season, and are com
inilting many depre iatIons in hcnhouses.
farmyards. and the like. Many = hunt will DO
organized this fall to drive them out. and there
will BE- rare sport for the man who wants some
thing a little more exciting, but no more dan
gerous. than the chase OF he deer or the moose.
All reports from the north woods are that deer
were never 50 plentiful in tho history VI hunt
ing. not even last year, when 10000 are sup
pO-ed to have been killed in the state. Dur
ing the twenty-five days OF open season the
woods from the main line OF the Northern Pa.
citc road north to the limit OF settlements Will
be crowded with hunters. and many are already
going In and preparing By building camps and
getting things in readiness for convenient stop
ping places among the swamps and poplar
groves OF tho deer country.