208 Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 



The young pine may possibly have sprung from evergreen trees 

 of some neighboring farmyard, or it may have been one of the ad- 

 vance guard of the dune flora advancing on the region. At any 

 rate, it indicated significantly what might be done to prevent the 

 blowing of soil away and suggests that an evergreen nursery on the 

 place might yield profitable results. 



27. AMERICAN LARCH; TAMARACK 



LARIX LARICINA (Du Roi) Koch. 



The Tamarack was once a common tree in the neighborhood of 

 the lake, but it is now rapidly disappearing, as it is throughout 

 much of the country, on account of drainage. There are remains 

 of large tamarack bogs a few miles west of the lake, a few miles 

 southwest, and some a few miles to the northeast. A few isolated 

 trees are found about the edge of Inlet marsh, and there are re- 

 mains of a few trees down the outlet. 



The tamaracks, or tamarack bogs, form a feature of the land- 

 scape quite peculiar and apart. They usually occur in kettle holes 

 or lake plains where there is little or no drainage. Many of them 

 occupy the beds of ancient lakes. Lost Lake, which is a sluggish 

 expansion of the outlet of Lake Maxinkuckee, has patches of 

 sphagnum growing on the borders of its plain and at the water's 

 edge, which seems to indicate something like the beginning of a 

 tamarack marsh. Hawk's marsh, which contains no tamaracks at 

 present, very closely resembles a tamarack marsh. The tamarack 

 marsh is usually a peat bog almost impenetrable about the edges on 

 account of the dense growth of various shrubs — such as poison 

 sumac, mountain holly, blueberry brambles, and the like, all grow- 

 ing together in an impenetrable mass. Beneath the tamarack trees 

 is a region of continual gloom, with springy hummocks of peat 

 moss, much like immense wet sponges. Just out of the denser 

 shadows grow the pitcher plants, droseras, and various heaths and 

 orchids. The perpetual gloom of the tamarack swamp makes it 

 attractive to shy animals which have elsewhere become scarce or 

 have entirely disappeared. Owls and hawks are common, and here 

 the partridge drums or rises in precipitous whirring flight. Few 

 of our native trees, except the cottonwood, are so vocal. The 

 tamarack swamp southwest of the lake, consisting of trees of all 

 heights and ages, each forming a perfect spire and glistening gray 

 with dew, formed an unusually attractive spectacle in 1906. It 

 has since been cut out. 



