126 BOTANY OF MICHIGAN 



The swamps are often very wet and the ground covered with sphagnum. 

 On their margins and in open spaces, Chamaedaphne calyculata, Andro- 

 meda glaucophylla, Ledum groenlandicum and Kalmia polifolia are 

 abundant and are the dominant bog shrubs of the region. In spots two 

 more swamp shrubs, Myrica gale and Betula pumila glandulifera, are 

 plentiful. Along the lake shore generally, above Shelldrake around to 

 Vermilion are sand dunes, covered mostly with jack pine, red maple 

 and reel oak. Some distance from the shore west to Luce County there 

 are large areas of fixed sand ridges thinly covered mostly with small 

 red pine and jack pine, much of the merchantable timber having long 

 ago been cut. South of Vermilion as far as Shelldrake River, there is a 

 region of large and high sand ridges formerly covered mostly with white 

 pine and red pine, all of which have been cut except perhaps about a 

 section of original forest of fine trees southwest of Vermilion. The lum- 

 bered portion has been visited by several destructive fires. In open 

 places there are at present, where not too much shaded by small jack 

 pines and other coniferous shrubs, extensive areas well sodded over with 

 Poa pratensis and Poa compressa, making good pasture lands. In spots 

 Primus pennslyvanica is abundant. 



Rivers and Small Lakes 



Two streams perhaps worthy of notice penetrate this locality. The 

 Tahquamenon River which rises in Luce County on the west is much 

 the larger. It passes in two places over precipitous rocks, known as the 

 upper and lower falls, and enters Lake Superior at Emerson. The river 

 was followed up as far as the lower falls, and the writer has never seen a 

 more beautiful small stream. Along its banks elm and black ash are 

 quite common. Shelldrake River rising near the west line of Chippewa 

 County flows northerly toward Vermilion, then southeast, and enters 

 the lake at Shelldrake. This was followed up about 17 miles west of 

 Shelldrake where lumbering camps are at present established. Between 

 these two rivers some distance from the lake, the sand ridges are large 

 and high, and among them are many small lakes, ponds, and swamps. 



Ponds and Bogs Near the Lake Superior Shore 



From Whitefish Point to Vermilion, near and parallel with the Lake 

 Superior shore, are many ponds and bogs often long and narrow, enclosed 

 mostly by drifting sand dunes on the lake side and higher fixed sand 

 ridges on the land side. Only a few of these have a natural outlet to the 

 lake. Just south of Vermilion are a typical long pond and bog bordered 

 by a tamarack and black spruce swamp and backed by high fixed sand 

 ridges. These ponds and bogs are the natural home of many water 

 plants and sedges. Here the locality and conditions being well-nigh 



