Vol. XL, No. 2 



WASHINGTON 



August, 1921 



THE 



ATD0MAL 

 ro APfflG 



COPYRIGHT. 1 921. BY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY. WASHINGTON, D C. 



THE WILD LIFE OF LAKE SUPERIOR, 

 PAST AND PRESENT 



The Habits of Deer, Moose, Wolves, Beavers, Muskrats, 



Trout, and Feathered Wood-Folk Studied 



with Camera and Flashlight 



By George Shiras, 3d* 



Author of "Photographing Wild Game with Flashlight and Camera," "Wild Animals That Took 

 Their Own Pictures by Day and by Night," "One Season's Game-Bag with the Camera," "A 

 Flashlight Story of an Albino Porcupine and of a Cunning But Unfortunate Coon," "The White 

 Sheep, Giant Moose, and Smaller Game of the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska," and "Nature's Trans- 

 formation at Panama," in the National Geographic Magazine. 



CHAPTER I 



LAKE SUPERIOR is nature's 

 greatest reservoir of deep, pure 

 ^J water in the world. Four hundred 

 and fifty miles long, one hundred and 

 sixty-seven miles wide, having a maxi- 

 mum depth of a thousand feet, its bot- 

 tom four hundred feet below sea-level, 

 with some two hundred tributary streams 

 and the greatest snow precipitation east 

 of the Mississippi, this great crescent- 

 shaped basin has remained at the same 

 level for centuries. 



Overflowing, in a series of tumultuous 



* In 1849 the paternal grandfather of the 

 author visited Lake Superior to fish for 

 speckled trout, at a time when there was only 

 a scattered settlement or two, and before a 

 lock had been constructed around the rapids 

 at the head of St. Marie's River. In these 

 vast waters he fished until his 89th year. 



Then in 1859 came the father, as a fly-fisher- 

 man, later a Justice of the United States Su- 

 preme Court, who now, in his 90th year, con- 

 tinues his annual visits. 



Finally came the author in 1870, who herein 

 describes his own experiences of fifty years, 

 first with the rod and gun, and then with the 

 camera and flashlight, which brought to the 

 sportsman and the naturalist a new pleasure 

 and a new means of studying and photograph- 

 ing wild life. — Editor. 



rapids, the rock-rimmed shore at the 

 eastern end, the excess waters have chan- 

 neled out the beautiful Sault Ste. Marie 

 River, with its wooded islands and many 

 bays, passing thence through straits, 

 rivers, lakes, and a great estuary to the 

 sea, two thousand miles away. 



PRIMITIVE ROCKS AND VIRGIN WATERS 



The ancient formations of Lake Su- 

 perior are grouped into three great di- 

 visions — the Archean, Algonquin, and 

 Cambrian — each separated by uncon- 

 formities of great magnitude. While of 

 interest to the geologists, for here are 

 the finest iron and copper deposits in the 

 world, besides marble and granite, slate 

 and sandstone, the basic divisions may be 

 treated as rocks of crystalline and sedi- 

 mentary origin. 



Included in the latter is the "Lake 

 Superior sandstone," unique in contain- 

 ing little or no fossil remains, indicative 

 of its early formation. 



The surfaces of the primary rocks are 

 heavily scored by glacial action, while the 

 overlying strata of sandstone, often many 

 thousand feet thick, have been fashioned 

 by the elements into fantastic and impres- 



