46 Bangs Mammals from Lake Edward, Quebec. 



This forest contains very few species of trees, of which the white 

 birch is the commonest, with spruce and fir in about equal num 

 bers next, and now and then a solitary white pine. The moun 

 tain ash and the spiked maple are very common, but hardly 

 attain to the dignity of trees. In many places where the forest 

 has been burnt a dense growth of raspberry bushes and dwarf 

 cherry immediately springs up, and it is many years before the 

 trees again take possession of the land. The monotony of the 

 forest is here and there broken by little alder swamps along the 

 many brooks, or by open sphagnum barrens with their clumps 

 of Ledum latifolium and Kalmia glauca. In this northern latitude 

 the fallen trees lie on the ground for a long time without decay 

 ing, and the accumulation of centuries covered by a luxuriant 

 growth of moss makes walking through the forest a matter of 

 the greatest difficulty. There are no roads anywhere, all the 

 logging being done by water, but the abundance of lakes con 

 nected by rivers or brooks makes the country very accessible by 

 canoe. 



Trapping in the northern forest in the tangled mass of fallen 

 trees and granite boulders covered by a deep growth of moss is 

 a very different thing from trapping in open country. In the 

 open southern woods, with but little rubbish on the ground, one 

 takes as much in traps that have been set a week or ten days in 

 one spot as one does the first day, and when the supply is used 

 up, it is then little use to move the trap, as all the small mam 

 mals from near about have already found it. It is not so in the 

 northern forest, where distance means much more and the small 

 mammals are very local and do not travel far. The first day or 

 two will exhaust the supply in one spot, but a move of only a 

 few yards will again yield specimens in about the same number. 



We were disappointed in not getting Phenacomys, but it is 

 possible that the animal does occur here locally. 



There were a few mammals we knew to occur in the imme 

 diate vicinity of Lake Edward that we were unable to get, and 

 perhaps it is as well to mention these. Flying squirrels and 

 chipmunks were said by the Indians and French Canadians to 

 occur, but we saw none. Moose and caribou were both quite 

 plentiful. I found a fresh caribou track one morning where the 

 animal had come out of the forest and walked along the railroad 

 for about a mile. 



The red fox was abundant, and we found many signs. The 

 section man on the railroad told me foxes were sometimes killed 



