74 THE MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



The uoblt' little animal, the beaver, under the present protective laws 

 of Michigan, is gradually gaining ground and coming back to its former 

 haunts. Many valuable lessons in industry, perseverance and accumula- 

 tion can be learned from the beaver. Its knowledge and work in 

 dam building approaches, if it does not in some instances, excel, that of 

 man. The experience of lumbermen, when trying to float their logs 

 down a stream dammed by the beaver, has been to place a large force of 

 men to work tearing out the dams, and when left for a single night 

 they would be fully repaired and made stronger tlian before by these per- 

 sistent and industrious little animals. The indolent members of the 

 beaver family are driven out and become hermits or bank beavers. 



The propagation of game animals is now receiving considerable atten- 

 tion in the Northern Peninsula. The Cleveland-Clifts Iron (V)., some 

 years ago, purchased Grand Island, in Lake Superior, and now, over 

 its fourteen thousand acres, can be seen the elk, moose, deer ante- 

 lope, mountain sheep, and the workings of the beaver. In addition, 

 hundreds of pheasants and other carefully protected game birds are 

 there being reared and propagated. This company is now hatching and 

 planting annually a large number of brook trout. It is only such laud- 

 able work that will preserve for any considerable length of time, the 

 wild life of the forests now so fast disapi)earing. 



In the southern portion of the Southern Peninsula, the rabbit and the 

 squirrel, with an occasional fox, mink and rat, appear to be about all 

 that is left in what once was the natural haunt of the deer, the bear 

 and much other large game. The common black bear is one of the best 

 of the game animals. Its flesh is good for food, and its skin, in proper 

 season, is valuable. However, the black bear is the most abused of all 

 our valuable fur-bearing animals. It is absolutely harmless, unless 

 wounded or cornered, and yet there is no protection for bruin. He is 

 slaughtered in and out of season, is common prey for all mankind all 

 the time, wantonly killed and wasted. I trust that the next Legislature 

 will enact a law to protect this animal during the season of reproduction 

 and also during the time when the flesh is not good for food and its 

 pelt is valueless for any purpose. 



The present protection law for the beaver will ex]>ire by limitatiim 

 in December next year. The re-enactment of this law for a further term 

 of years would enable the beaver to gain a firm foothold. The vicious 

 pot-hunter has found a means of destroying whole families of these in- 

 dustrious animals at one blow, by making an opening through the side 

 of a beaver house and placing a small stick of dynamite therein, then 

 waiting until the beaVer returns before igniting the fuse. The explosion 

 tears the house to pieces and kills all the occupants. 



The United States government has taken an important step towards 

 the preservation of game animals in the' enactment of what is known 

 as the *'Lacey Law." This law provides that the shipment of any game 

 animal or any part thereof, from out one state to another or to any 

 foreign county, contrarj- to the laws of the state from Avhence the ship- 

 ment was made, is an ofl:ence, and the violator may be apprehended and 

 punished by the United States court, imposing a fine of two hundred 

 dollars. The United States government was very slow to enact legisla- 

 tion upon the subject, owing to the fear that it might encroach upon 

 the rights of the states. To Hon. John F. Lacey, of Iowa, may be ere- 



