THE WILD LIFE OF LAKE SUPERIOR 



145 



These trees are rubbed fully a month 

 after the velvet has been shed, and some 

 weeks before the does are responsive, or 

 about October 15, in the Lake Superior 

 district. 



In the past ten years I have been in the 

 Michigan forest during all that month, 

 my notes showing that the first rubbed 

 sapling was October 5, and in the nine 

 other years the date averaged the middle 

 of that month. 



In rubbing the antlers on a sapling, the 

 white-tail lowers the head until the nose 

 comes within a couple of inches of the 

 ground, and then, in a deliberate way, one 

 beam is pressed against the tree, the fric- 

 tion removing the outer strip of bark for 

 about sixteen inches, showing the fresh 

 white streak of the inner wood. The 

 tree, small as it is, is seldom girdled, in- 

 dicating that the animal stands in one 

 position. 



CARIBOU AND ELK ATTACK TREKS AS 

 IMAGINARY RIVALS 



The caribou and elk, however, often 

 regard the tree as an imaginary rival, at- 

 tacking it with considerable vigor. Once 

 I saw a bull elk butt a lower branch of a 

 heavy red cedar, and as the limb re- 

 bounded the animal received a stinging 

 blow in the face ; whereupon he charged 

 with the full weight of the body, snap- 

 ping off the limb with a report heard 200 

 yards away. 



The does bear their fawns on the 

 higher ground, between May 25 and June 

 25, or seven months after the rut, con- 

 cealing their young in balsam or maple 

 thickets, where the family group lingers 

 until fall, being more open to attack by 

 the illegal hunter than the bucks, who 

 hide in the thick and almost impenetrable 

 swamps. 



On the coming of the heavier frosts, 

 in early October, the bucks wander 

 about in the night, rubbing the trees and 

 pawing up the ground some weeks in 

 advance of the mating season, which oc- 

 curs between October 20 and November 

 20, shortly after which the antlers are 

 discarded, usually between December 1 

 and January 15. 



Contrary to general belief, the antlers 

 are not for use in defense against preda- 

 tory animals, like the wolf, for they are 

 shed before the coming of the deep snows 



and when open waters still offer an 

 effective means of baffling pursuers. 

 When chased thereafter a buck will make 

 his final stand by facing the foe, rearing 

 high and coming down with the sharp 

 forefeet on any animal attacking from 

 the front. 



ANTLERS USED IN MOCK BATTLES 



The antlers are, therefore, purely a 

 sexual manifestation, being used freely 

 in mock battles with a rivaL These some- 

 times develop into a serious affray, and 

 then death may come when the antlers 

 are inextricably interlocked. 



The larger bucks weigh between 200 

 and 300 pounds, and it has long appeared 

 to me that those of upper Michigan, 

 either by gradual evolution or survivor- 

 ship, possess much longer limbs than any 

 of the species elsewhere. Living perma- 

 nently in a region of deeper snows, it 

 would seem that the ones having the long- 

 est legs would get a better footing or be 

 able more easily to leap over logs or wind- 

 falls when being driven by the timber- 

 wolf. 



On the other hand, the deer of the 

 lower Alleghany Mountains in the State 

 of West Virginia seem to have unusually 

 short legs, for in this region their only 

 safe retreat from hounds or man are the 

 dense laurel thickets, where many of the 

 runways pass under gnarled limbs only 

 a foot or two above the ground, so that 

 the ones more likely to escape pursuit are 

 those capable of entering the first thicket 

 or passing from one to another. 



HOW THE MICHIGAN LICENSE SYSTEM 

 NEARLY EXTERMINATED THE DEER 



As a step toward conserving the deer, 

 the number that could be killed annually 

 in 1895 was restricted in Michigan to five 

 for each hunter, and the license bore five 

 detachable coupons for use in tagging each 

 carcass. In the opinion of all sportsmen, 

 this new system was expected to be of 

 the greatest future value. 



Then occurred an extraordinary psy- 

 chological influence, upsetting all calcula- 

 tions, and Marquette County well illus- 

 trated what happened throughout the 

 Upper Peninsula. Heretofore about 

 three hundred persons hunted deer an- 

 nually in this county. When the first 

 licenses were issued, the usual number 



