succeeded in securing two or three of them. What became of the balance of the herd is not known, but probably they were hunted down and killed before getting out of the state. Now, it is more than probable that there are yet some deer in the timber regions of the state, but the incident just related is the story of the last flock of deer seen in northwestern Iowa. Foxes, coyotes and prairie wolves were numerous up to about 1870 or 1875, since which time with the gradual settlement and improvement of the country, they have gradually disappeared until they are practically extinct or nearly so. The fox is always respected for his smartness, and the prairie wolf despised for his meanness. It was not possible, until about 1880 for farmers to keep sheep with profit on account of the depredations of these marauders. In addition to the prairie wolves there was occasionally seen a large grey wolf, known as the timber wolf. They seemed to be thicker set and stouter, stockier built than the wolves of the timber country, but were so rare that they never cut much figure in the game of northwestern Iowa. Mr. Barkman used to get one occasionally in his extensive purchases of fur in this region. Another animal occasionally encountered in this region was a species of lynx, known among the trappers as the "bob-cat." He had long strong forelegs; thick, heavy shoulders; a short, thick neck, and a round head, a somewhat lank body, and a short tail, which accounts for the name "bob-cat." He had the tassels on the tips of his ears, which unmistakably proclaimed him a member of the lynx family. His feet were large in proportion to the body, and the tracks he left in the snow were terror inspiring to those not acquainted with the animal and his peculiarities. One of these animals was killed in the winter of 1869 and 1870 northwest of Spirit Lake, by a young man by the name of Fenton, who lived at Marble Grove. Either that winter or a year later one was killed by Frank Mead out west of West Okoboji. Frank and a young man by the name of Hogle were together out there trapping muskrats. It was their custom to make the rounds of their traps during the day, bringing their game in and taking care of their fur in the evening, and they were not very particular about throwing the carcasses far away from the tent. One night Frank heard something prowling around and crunching the carcasses that had been thrown out the preceding day, and crawling out of bed he went to the door of the tent, and cautiously putting aside the curtain that served as a door he was suddenly startled by the hideous countenance of an enormous bob-cat within six inches of his face. Dodging back into the tent he seized his revolver and finished the animal there and then. He brought the hide in next day and was quite proud of his trophy. A son of Homer Calkins, living at that time in a bend of the Little Sioux southwest of Milford, had a lot of traps set for small game, such as muskrat, mink, etc. One morning on visiting his traps he saw a fierce, hideous looking animal in one of them. He had no idea what it was, having never seen nor heard of anything like it. He at once provided himself with a willow club of suitable size and tackled the brute, and for a time it was an open question which would win, the boy or the bob-cat. But the boy was strong and plucky, and delivered his blows fast and furious and soon had the satisfaction of seeing his antagonist show signs of weakness, when a few more welldirected blows finished the job, and the furious beast succumbed to the inevitable and the boy carried home the hide in triumph. None of the animals have been seen nor heard of here since about that time. The foregoing incidents are not regarded as either interesting or important, except as they mark the dividing line between the past and the present, the old and the new. It notes the time and place of the disappearance of the game of northwestern Iowa, which was once popularly supposed to be a hunter's paradise. CHAPTER XXXII. P EARLY FISHING THE SUPPLY BEGINS TO DI- ABANDONED-LEGISLATIVE TIONS FISH SHANTIES PROHIBITED STATE BUILDS DAM ACROSS THE OUTLET-WINTER FISH ING PROHIBITED-THE CLOSED SEASON. ERHAPS a few words regarding the fishing and the in terests connected with it may not be wholly uninteresting. Fabulous stories have been told first and last of the Spirit Lake and Okoboji fishing, but no ordinary report has been given out that exceeded the truth as it was in the early days. These conditions remained in force until near the close of the seventies, when it began to be noticed that the fish were beginning to thin out or get scarce. This was due to two principal causes. In the first place no restrictions had ever been placed on the number of fish taken, or the manner of taking them, and the result was that fish were taken away in enormous quantities. Parties would come from long distances in every direction, bringing their seines and spears and a boat, and barrels for packing fish and salt for putting them down, and going into camp would remain as long as they cared to, and then give way to some other party. In this way hundreds of tons were taken. In many instances, where parties didn't understand putting them down properly, they spoiled before reaching home and had to be thrown away. This class was never popular here and soon won the appellation "swill barrel fishermen." In the second place, during the high water of the ten years following 1874, vast numbers went down stream that never found their way back. The two mills on the outlet were built before the legislature passed the act requiring the owners of waterpowers to put fishways in their dams, consequently neither of the dams on the outlet were provided with fishways. It was an easy matter for fish to go down stream, but impossible for them to get back. It is probable that more fish went down stream and failed to find their way back during those years of high water than have ever been caught out of the lakes since fishing first began. In view of these facts it soon began to be talked that measures must be devised to prevent their too rapid destruction, and also to replenish the diminishing supply. To meet the emergency the Seventeenth General Assembly, in the spring of 1878, passed an act requiring the owners of dams "to construct and maintain fishways of suitable capacity and facility to afford a free passage for fish up and down through such water course when the water of said stream is running over said dam." In the same act all dams or obstructions not provided with fishways were declared nuisances, to be abated under the law relating to nuisances. This section of the law was afterwards declared unconstitutional so far as it related to dams built previous to the passage of the law, and as both of the dams on the outlet to the lakes were built prior to that time no fishways were ever erected in them. In the spring of 1880, the state legislature enacted a law providing for an additional fish hatchery at Spirit Lake, and the appointment of an assistant fish commissioner. Previous to this time the state had erected a hatchery near Anamosa, in Jones County, and Mr. Shaw, the fish commissioner, used occasionally to send to the lakes quantities of small fish, but the PROTECTION AND PROPAGATION OF FISH 389 distance was so great and the means of transportation so inadequate that the amount of replenishing done through that channel was of little if any benefit. A. A. Mosher, of Spirit Lake, was appointed assistant commissioner. He at once went to work with the limited appropriation at his disposal, and erected on the isthmus an establishment by which he was to supplement the work of the state hatchery, by securing from there spawn and young fish, and caring for them until they acquired sufficient vitality to be placed in the lakes. The experiment was not as successful as it might have been had the appropriation been more liberal. In 1886 the legislature decided to discontinue the state hatchery in Jones County and move the whole affair to Spirit Lake. William Larrabee was governor at the time and he appointed E. D. Carlton, of Spirit Lake, fish commissioner. The office of. assistant commissioner was discontinued. Governor Larrabee himself selected the new location, or rather intimated what location he would approve, and Mr. Carlton proceeded at once. to move up such of the state's property as was worth moving and commenced the work of rebuilding the hatchery in its new location. Mr. Carlton at once proceeded to business and as rapidly as he could with the limited appropriation at his command, he constructed the necessary vats and tanks and such other appliances as were understood to be the proper thing in enterprizes of this kind, and during the four years of his incumbency made a fair start in the work of fish culture. Mr. Carlton retained the position until the spring of 1890, when he was superseded by Mr. R. K. Soper of Emmet County. During Mr. Soper's incumbency the legislature failed to make any appropriation for contingent expenses, consequently he was handicapped by lack of funds. There was a little left over from the former appropriation and when that was exhausted he had no funds to work with, so that about all he could |