Facts for the immigrant concerning Barron County, Wisconsin

              14 ENTERED   AND    VACANT  LANDS
their muffled thunder, show that they have quite recovered from the disaster. Of larger game, and kinds of more staple value to the hunter, as deer and bear, there have been at all times a remarkable abundance; but at the present, when this region has become almost neutral ground between the Indians and the whites, it is observed that they are rapidly increasing. The spectacle of the roe and the buck, leaping from their beds and bounding airily away through the forest, or of certafn black, ursiform shadows withdrawing slowly from the open pathway into the obscurity of rustling bushes, is very common, and, it may be added, naturally thrills the traveler unaccustomed to the woods with peculiar sensations. Wild bees fill the air with their humming, bringing sweets to their lofty homes from linden blossoms, sunny openings, and flowery dells; mink and musk- rat burrow and play along alder bottoms and banks; beaver, with with wonderful industry practice their engineering in countless im¬ provements on outlets and streams ; otter perform their trips by river and lake, and land, neglecting none of the well-worn " slides " or regular " dives;" martin, fisher, wildcat, lynx, wolf, fox, coon— almost everything, in short, that can interest the trapper, as also the hunter and fisherman, can be found in the shadow and silence of these
old woods.
Entered lands in Barron County, are worth from $1.50 to $5 per acre. About 65 per cent, of the whole county still belongs to the government, of which nearly 172,000 acres are not in market, having been withdrawn for a railroad grant, but which will doubtless soon become available for settlement either as homesteads or by purchase at cheap rates. The lands still vacant and subject to purchase, or to be taken under the homestead or pre-emption laTVS, amount to about 200,000 acres, or nearly 33^ per cent, of the 900 square miles which comprise the whole area of the county. Only about 20,000 acres or Z^ per cent, have been taken as homesteads up to the present time.
All persons can take a homestead of 160 acres of vacant lands anywhere outside of railroad limits ; and lands of this class lie in the eastern portion of the county. All can obtain the same, but only in the even numbered sections of lands within the 20 mile railroad limit;