r ^prf 



Photo by George Shiras, 3rd 

 A PAIR O? SKUNKS PHOTOGRAPHl^D BY SET FI.ASHUGHT AT EDGi: OF TPIE) AUTHOR'S 



DARK ROOM I I912 



Plate developed while the animals were beneath the cabin floor (see page 790) 



the occupants above, must be left to the 

 readers for determination. 



THi: MICHIGAN BE:avER, PAST AND 

 PRESENT 



During my earlier visits to the south 

 shore of Lake Superior beaver were 

 abundant, and while seldom seen in day- 

 time the fresh cutting and their slides, 

 lodges, and dams indicated a wide distri- 

 bution. After 1885 their decrease in 

 numbers became marked, so that between 

 1890 and 1900 I saw only two, each liv- 

 ing a hermit life in a river bank, and 

 neither daring to build a lodge or even 

 provide an adequate supply of bark in 

 the pools close to the under-water tun- 

 nels. Such was the situation when the 

 legislature passed a belated act closing 

 the season on beaver for a number of 

 years. Gradually a recovery was noted, 

 and, odd as it may first appear, most of 

 the new homes were close to rural hab- 



itations or not far from well-used high- 

 ways, because in such places the profes- 

 sional trapper had no line of traps or 

 feared to poach, knowing the interest 

 aroused in an animal almost unknown to 

 the later generation of settlers. Today 

 the upper peninsula of Michigan, like 

 many other portions of the northern 

 country, contains more beaver food and 

 a larger area suitable for their habita- 

 tions than in the days of the primeval 

 forest or before the white man came. 

 Originally every stream, pond, and lake 

 was fringed with a heavy growth of 

 coniferous trees, none of which had edi- 

 ble bark, and it took the beaver countless 

 years to flood out and destroy such for- 

 ests, when with the appearance of mead- 

 ows came succulent roots and a variety 

 of mixed hardwoods. On the advent of 

 the lumbermen millions of acres of pine, 

 hemlock, and cedar went down before 

 the axe, which was followed usually by 



796 



