422 



The National Geographic Magazine 



season of camera hunting more accurate 

 conclusions can be reached concerning 

 our big game and their ways, in daylight 

 or in darkness, than will ever occur 

 through a dozen seasons where the crack 

 of the rifle almost invariably follows the 

 close proximity of the wild animal. 



AT THE OLD CAMP ON LAKE SUPERIOR 



While it was the purpose of the writer 

 to describe in extenso several camera 

 hunts on the Atlantic coast during the 

 year, it would seem disloyal to entirely 

 omit his old camp on White Fish Lake, 

 in upper Michigan, where, as usual, a 

 few weeks were spent last year and 

 where, as might be expected, the camera 

 was used from time to time. And at this 

 point it seems proper to briefly describe 

 some remarkable changes in the environ- 

 ment of the white-tail deer on Lake Su- 

 perior and the dangers resulting there- 

 from, for it is of this animal, above all 

 others, that the writer has made a life- 

 long study. 



The deer of upper Michigan have in 

 recent years greatly changed their habits. 

 Formerly in the early fall they gradually 

 migrated south in order to escape the 

 deep snows of the Lake Superior shores, 

 averaging more than five feet on the level 

 in mid-winter ; but the building of several 

 lines of railway across their old migrat- 

 ing trails, with the rights of way fre- 

 quently barred by double barriers of wire 

 fence, has cut off the retreat to their 

 former winter range. Owing to the rapid 

 destruction of timber on the hemlock 

 ridges and the cedar swamps the winter 

 quarters of the deer in the Lake Superior 

 district have, each year, become more and 

 more restricted, with the result that these 

 animals seem doomed to quick destruc- 

 tion through the ravenous attacks of the 

 cunning timber wolf. Compelled now, 

 as the deer are, to yard in dozens and 

 sometimes hundreds — with well-beaten 

 trails throughout each range and snow 

 deep and impenetrable on all sides — the 

 wolf has an easy time in winter, for a 

 single one may, in a few hours, destroy 

 dozens of deer under such conditions. It 

 has been estimated, from the carcasses 



found, that over 2,000 deer have been 

 killed by wolves in the vicinity of White 

 Fish Lake in the past four years, and 

 possibly many more. 



There is a picture, by flashlight, on 

 page 426 of one of the few deer seen by 

 me last season on White Fish Lake, 

 where to see twenty-five in a single day, 

 a few years ago, was not unusual. 



Therefore it is with pleasure that I 

 have also depicted on the opposite page 

 the big gray timber wolf trapped on the 

 same trail used by this particular deer 

 and on the i » ery next night. A mile away 

 I heard its mournful howl, when the trap 

 was sprung, and the next day the camera 

 shot preceded the rifle bullet which wiped 

 out its cruel and cunning life. Yet, in 

 passing the death sentence, a feeling of 

 momentary pity was felt, since, held in 

 a cruel vise of steel, the big glowering 

 animal was in no position to escape or 

 defend itself. This was the nineteenth 

 wolf trapped, poisoned, or shot in the 

 vicinity of my camp the past thirty years, 

 and in number represent the offspring 

 of only three female wolves in a single 

 season. The bounty in Michigan now 

 varies from $35 to $50 per scalp, and 

 every effort is being made to wipe out 

 this the most resourceful, destructive, 

 and elusive animal on the American conti- 

 nent. And to the Biological Bureau, at 

 Washington, must be credited much of 

 the successful work now being done, both 

 in the deer forests of the North and upon 

 the cattle plains of the West. 



AFTER THE NEWFOUNDLAND CARIBOU 



On a previous occasion I had spent 

 many pleasant weeks in Newfoundland 

 fishing, canoeing, and camping on the in- 

 terior lakes and rivers, but it was not 

 until the fall of last year that I made a 

 special trip for caribou, and particularly 

 for the purpose of picturing their water 

 migration on several of the larger lakes, 

 for when migrating they generally prefer 

 the open waters to traveling across bogs 

 and timbered land. 



With my former guide, William 

 Squires, we made a canoe trip up Sandy 

 River to Deer and Sandy lakes — about 



