add variety to the scene. In northern areas the woods change to forests of giant pine, which stand watch over the countless lakes, whose clear, cold waters sparkle in the sun.

Because of its iron content, the soil of Minnesota is very fertile, and its reddish earth has brought wealth to farming. The extensive forests, which once covered much of the state, especially its northern portions, have been largely consumed or fallen prey to forest fires, and the present forests, mostly deciduous and young, are covered with an almost impenetrable undergrowth.

Deep in these thickets still lives the original fauna, with wolves and bears in even greater numbers than in Finland. There is also a greater variety of mammals than in Finland, but in bird life Finland is definitely the richer. Measures have been taken to conserve the fish and game resources, once so widely exploited. In spite of the popularity of fishing as a sport, there are probably more fish available now than in many Finnish waters, indicating the success of the conservation program. As for flora, there is an abundance of varieties that in Europe grow in latitudes south of Finland.

There is proof of human life having existed in Minnesota as early as 15,000 years before the pyramids were built in Egypt. In 1931, near Pelican Rapids, buried in ten feet of alluvial mud, there was found the skeleton of a young girl, who had lived and died about 20,000 years ago. In addition to this find, called the "Minnesota Man" by the anthropologists, another pre-historic skeleton, "Brown's Valley Man", has been found, together with some flint tools - the remains of man who must have lived some 12,000 years ago. Other pre-historic finds point to life 9,000 years ago. In modern times, the Sioux, or Dakota, Indians peopled the northeastern part of the state, and with the picturesque landscape in which they lived in mind, they called it Minnisota, composed of the words mini or `water' and sotah meaning 'reflected clouds.'

A State is Born

History is vague about the exact arrival of the first white man in Minnesota. In the autumn of 1898, one Olof Ohman, a Swedish farmer living near Alexandria, found a big, flat stone entwined in the roots of a tree he was chopping. When his small son noticed strange carving on the stone, it was taken into the house and cleaned, and surprisingly, a long inscription was found on one side of the stone and along the edge. The stone is of

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