174 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 89 



position. Two tracts of cut-over hardwoods lie within a 

 mile of the Station, a typical cedar bog two miles distant on 

 the north shore of Burt Lake, and all about and between are 

 the sand hills and plains covered with aspens. 



The cut-over hardwoods are a vast brush-heap laid and 

 ready for the match. Tree-tops in varying stages of dissolu- 

 tion cover the ground lying as the lumberman left them when 

 he withdrew ; the few trees that he failed to cut down, the 

 saplings and second growth that have since sprung up, pro- 

 ject above but scarcely conceal the debris. So numerous 

 are the fallen trunks and so dense the foliage of the shrubby 

 growth that one may sometimes walk for rods upon them 

 without so much as a glimpse of the earth beneath him. Un- 

 der this leafy jungle where the midsummer sunlight seldom 

 falls is a thick layer of humus and wood in all stages of de- 

 cay inhabited by hordes of lowly creatures, ants, worms, 

 snails, beetles, and larvae of many insects. Here in July and 

 August are plenty of berries, especially of the red-berried eld- 

 er and the red raspberry fruiting wherever they can find a 

 place to grow. It would be difficult to find conditions of food 

 and shelter more acceptable to the forest avifauna than are 

 afforded by these cut-over hardwoods. 



The large bog on Burt Lake to which reference has been 

 made may well serve as a type of the bogs of the region as 

 there are a number of smaller ones partly filled with vegeta- 

 tion and sand washed down from the adjacent higher land. 

 This bog, known locally as Reese's Bog, has evidently been 

 formed by dune or wave action that resulted in the cutting 

 off of a large shallow arm of the lake ; the quiet bay thus 

 formed became filled with vegetation, each generation of 

 plants at its death laying the foundation on which the next 

 was to grow. Underfoot now is a water-soaked carpet of 

 Sphagnum and other mosses, sundews, orchids, and other wa- 

 ter-loving plants into which the foot sinks to shoe-top ; over- 

 head the trees meet in a tangk of twigs, white cedars, bal- 

 sams, spruces, and larch, with here and there a swamp maple, 

 a white birch or a black ash. The competition for sunlight 



