BEAVER DAMS. 79 



besides several other iron locations of great value. 

 These are but the commencement of those vast ferru- 

 ginous deposits which distinguish this portion of 

 Upper Michigan over all other parts of the United 

 States.^ Lake Angeline, situated upon the summit 

 level of the coast range, is 850 feet above the level of 

 Lake Superior, from which it is distant about sixteen 

 miles. From the number of small lakes in this in- 

 considerable area, from the hills and lowlands into 

 which it is broken up, and from the number of small 

 streams to which they give rise, it is well w^atered, 

 and therefore extremely well adapted to beaver occu- 

 pation. There are other districts of the same extent, 

 in its immediate vicinity, particularly around Lake 

 Michigame,^ and upon the main branch of the Esco- 

 nauba, scarcely inferior to it in the number of beaver 

 dams and other erections which they contain; but the 

 one selected is sufficiently furnished in these respects 

 to yield ample materials for the illustration of the 

 works of the beaver. Since it is a material part of 



^ The great richness of this ore is shown by the following 

 analysis : 



Iron 70-22 Or Peroxide of Iron 90-58 



Oxygen 29-53 " Magnetic Oxide 9-17 



Insoluble 20 " Silica 20 



99-55 99-55 



Foster and Whitney's Report, Geology Lake Superior Land 

 District. Executive Doc, No. 4 (Senate), 1851, p. 74. 



^ Md-she-gd'-me, large lake. The Ojibwas classify lakes into 

 three kinds: Sd-gd-e'-ga, small lake; Md-she-gd'-me, large lake; 

 and Git-che-gd'-me, great lake. The last is applied to the "great 

 lakes" indiscriminately, and to the ocean. 



