BEAVER DAMS. 81 



reachable by means of artificial canals cut through 

 the lowlands and filled with water from the ponds. 



With the exception of Marquette, and a small set- 

 tlement at the mouth of the Chocolate River, and 

 with the further exception of several settlements upon 

 the lines of the Marquette and Ontonagon, and the 

 Peninsular Railroads, the entire region from Keweenaw 

 Bay of Lake Superior to Green Bay of Lake Michigan, 

 is still an unbroken and an uninhabited wilderness. 

 Prior to the discovery of the iron deposits in this dis- 

 trict, about the year 1846, it had scarcely been trav- 

 ersed except by the trapper, the surveyor, and the 

 Ojibwa Lidians, the latter of whom possessed the 

 country as a part of their hereditary domain. From 

 the dense undergrowth of the forest, from the swampy 

 character of a large portion of the lands, and from 

 the numerous windfalls, extending in some places for 

 miles, it is even now extremely difficult to traverse 

 this region in any direction except upon Indian trails ; 

 and no one but an experienced woodman can safely 

 undertake an expedition into this wilderness for any 

 considerable distance. Throughout this entire area 

 beavers are now abundant, and for the most part un- 

 disturbed in their habitations. Their works meet the 

 eye at almost every point on the numerous streams 

 with which it is covered as with a net-work; and they 

 afford to the observer the additional advantage of 

 being in a perfect condition as well as in actual use. 

 Each dam is not only couiplete in itself, but there is 

 a series of these dams, one above the other, on the 

 same stream, so located as not to interfere with each 

 other, and constructed so near together that the lower 

 one of two usually sets back its pond quite near to 



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