Common butterflies in the Northwoods are the 

 beautiful black and yellow swallow-tails and the 

 white-banded admirals. Both are so fond of sipping 

 salt from the ground that, with a little patience, I was 

 enabled to photograph them. What part these butter- 

 flies play in the household of the forest, I do not 

 know. The wild bees undoubtedly pollinate the Liii- 

 naeas and other flowers. But I seldom found them 

 at work, they seemed to just play and idle away the 

 warm hours and days. But perhaps they worked 

 enough, for the woodland flowers have borne seed 

 these many centuries and the bees have provided for 

 their own offspring. When I did see them on the 

 flowers, they were always in a great hurry, flitting 

 rapidly from plant to plant, as if they could not 

 finish a disagreeable duty quickly enough. 



The latter part of July, the whole lighthearted 

 tribe suddenly disappeared, but the serious bumble- 

 bees grew more numerous and worked every minute 

 on the flowers of the fireweeds. When it rained and 

 stormed, they grew numb and sluggish, but they 

 stayed right on the flowers till the sun came out 

 again, even if it rained and stormed for a day or 

 two. Their life seemed to be all work and no play. 



Some insects are exceedingly destructive to the 

 forest. The larvae of the tamarack sawfly haA'e within 

 the last ten or fifteen years killed half of the mature 

 tamaracks of eastern North America. And the end 

 is not yet, although the financial damage they have 

 already done must amount to about $5.000,000 or 

 more. 



Around my camp near Gunflint Lake, the cater- 



22 



