THE WILD LIFE OF LAKE SUPERIOR 



167 



Photograph by George Shiras, 3d 



A BEAVER VISITING THE BOAT-HOUSE IN FRONT OF CAMP: WHITEEISH RIVER 



This large beaver discovered a couple of young black ash and yvas tempted to visit the 

 camp clearing. Where is its tail? At no time in six years have the river beavers been seen in 

 daytime (see page 190). 



the methods employed in nature photog- 

 raphy, both by day and night, but have 

 omitted largely the history of its gradual 

 development, or how it has been used by 

 the naturalists and sportsmen as an aid 

 to science or the establishment of a new 

 pastime ; so some additional information 

 is not out of place. 



In looking over my diaries, beginning 

 in 1878 and continuing to date, the fol- 

 lowing brief entry appears in 1886: 



"Whitefish Lake, July 7-9. — First 

 day wounded bear on the way out ; saw 

 two deer in camp clearing. Second day 

 photographed a deer. Guide, Jake 

 Brown." 



At the time indicated I owned a 5 x 7 

 landscape camera with a single lens, of 

 slow speed, which had to be uncapped 

 Avhen an exposure was made ; so a tripod 

 was generally necessary. In some re- 

 spects this instrument proved more satis- 

 factory for scenic pictures than the mod- 

 ern outfit, for the use of the tripod in fo- 

 cusing and in the study of the field to be 

 included, besides the small aperture of 

 the diaphragm, resulted in well-defined 



negatives and also precluded the care- 

 lessness so customary with a snapshot 

 camera. 



When the time finally came that the 

 vacation was limited to the summer 

 months, with an occasional brief hunt in 

 the fall, the opportunity for outdoor 

 sport was greatly reduced, but the "call 

 of the wild" became intensified by the 

 confinement and exactions of city life. 



On these summer trips, in seeing the 

 wild animals in the woods and about the 

 waters, there was a lamentable lack of 

 the interest aroused when the gun was in 

 use. To paddle within range or cau- 

 tiously approach some clearing and then 

 see an animal slink away became mo- 

 notonous to one accustomed to a keener 

 and more exciting sport. 



THE FIRST ATTEMPT TO PHOTOGRAPH A 

 DEER 



Likely it was this feeling which led to 

 my suggesting to Jake Brown (the 

 worthy successor to Jack La Pete) the 

 possibility of photographing a deer. So 

 one afternoon the flat-bottomed hunting 



