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THE XATIOXAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Heavy gales can neither continue nor 

 develop on Lake Superior, as shown by 

 the fact that the maximum wind velocities 

 seldom exceed 40 miles an hour. Not 

 only is this remarkable record in striking- 

 contrast to the tornadoes of the Middle 

 West and the hurricanes frequently 

 reaching the Atlantic coast, but likewise 

 in the case of many populous communi- 

 ties. 



Here the Weather Bureau figures con- 

 firm the writer's conclusions. During a 

 five-year period ( 1911-1915) the wind 

 on 156 days reached or exceeded 40 miles 

 per hour at Duluth, and in the same 

 period a similar velocity was reached only 

 21 times at Houghton, 46 at Marquette, 

 and 33 at Sault Ste. Marie, showing that 

 the heavier winds subsided when they 

 reached the lake, and that this vast area 

 of water, instead of breeding gales or 

 accelerating the land winds, had the 

 opposite effect. 



Moreover, the heaviest wind at Duluth 

 in 47 years (1873- 1920) was 78 miles per 

 hour, in September, 1881, and this was 

 very exceptional, while the highest veloc- 

 ity at this period for Houghton was 60 

 miles; Marquette, 62, and Sault Ste. 

 Marie, 61 — substantial proof that Lake 

 Superior is free from heavy gales. Con- 

 trast such a record with the following 

 stations, many of which cover a lesser 

 period : 



Mobile, Ala., 115; Buffalo, N. Y., 96; 

 Mount Weather, Va., no; Charleston, 

 S. C, 96; New York, N. Y., 96; Fort 

 Canby, Wash, 104; Hatteras, N. C, 105; 

 Pensacola, Fla., 120; Key West, Fla., 

 115; St. Paul, Minn., 102; North Platte, 

 Nebr., 96; Galveston, Texas, 94; Kitty 

 Hawk, N. C, 100; Point Reyes, Calif., 

 120. 



SHIPWRECKS AR£ ALMOST UNKNOWN 



However, when moderate winds pre- 

 vail for several days along or across this 

 vast body of water, one may see, under 

 blue skies, great white-capped rollers 

 dashing against the black volcanic rocks 

 or surging high up on the beaches ; but 

 no reasonably staunch passenger steamer 

 has ever been sunk on Lake Superior by 

 reason of wind or waves, though occas- 

 sionally some of the large freight carriers, 

 when the shore and reefs are shrouded in 

 a fall snow-storm, have been wrecked 



within the narrowing outlet of the lake; 

 and again, on very rare occasions, an ore- 

 bout, with decks awash, carrying an im- 

 mense tonnage in its long, steel hull, has 

 developed a structural weakness in a roll- 

 ing sea and gone like a plummet to the 

 bottom. 



Loss of life in launches, sail-boats, or 

 lighter craft has been negligible, and it 

 is doubtless true that on many a small, 

 interior lake or tidal bay there have been 

 more casualties in a single season than 

 during a century on Lake Superior. 



MARKET HUNTERS KIIXED 1 50 DEER A 

 SEASON 



Other trips were often made into the 

 interior, where chains of lakes offered 

 a change of scenery and of methods of 

 hunting, including always a visit to a 

 little camp near Whitensh Lake. The 

 experiences gained in such widely sepa- 

 rated parts of the region were later much 

 enhanced when the camera allowed a 

 longer and better opportunity for study- 

 ing wild life. 



The market hunters seldom killed less 

 than a hundred and fifty deer a season. 

 One hunter happened to locate his camp 

 a few miles south of Whitensh Lake, 

 where almost as regularly as the clock a 

 horse in charge of an assistant passed 

 each morning loaded with saddles of 

 venison, to be shipped by express to 

 Detroit or Chicago, while the remainder 

 of the carcasses were left to rot. 



This slaughter in the neighborhood 

 continued for five seasons, with an esti- 

 mated total of over four hundred deer to 

 one gun. Then a ban was placed on the 

 sale of venison and the killing fell off for 

 a while. 



When reference is made to the sea- 

 sonal migration of wild creatures, we 

 usually have in mind a large class of birds 

 which every year go to and return from 

 the breeding grounds in the north. Cer- 

 tain fish, like the salmon and shad, are 

 migratory, as is the fur-seal and also 

 some insects, including certain butterflies, 

 but among the game mammals of our 

 continent only the buffalo and caribou 

 may be regarded as true migrants. 



However, some species of the deer 

 family, such as the elk and mule deer of 

 the Rockies and the moose of Alaska, as- 

 cend regularly in the spring to higher 



