THE WILD LIFE OF LAKE SUPERIOR 



169 



Photograph by George Shiras, 3d 



A GREAT BLUE HERON OPPOSITE THE AUTHORS CAMP 



Frogs in the reedy shore across the stream attracted the blue herons, but the camp was 

 watched closely by these cautious birds, Whitefish Lake (see page 190). 



where the deer came to feed, but the 

 shifting currents of the air usually indi- 

 cated my presence before the quarry ap- 

 proached close enough, showing the dif- 

 ference between shooting an animal some 

 distance away and trying to photograph 

 it within a few yards. 



ANIMALS MAKE THEIR OWN PORTRAITS 



During subsequent seasons this diffi- 

 culty was overcome by running a thread 

 across a runway or the beaches, with the 

 camera concealed a short distance away, 

 and in this manner pictures were ob- 

 tained without effort and of very excel- 

 lent quality. Later, when leaving the 

 camera out all day, it could be reset for 

 night with a flashlight, and thus it was at 

 work twenty-four hours — an important 

 advantage when in the remote wilderness 

 for a brief time. 



Another method was to place two or 

 three cameras in different parts of the 

 slough, and when an animal passed in 

 front of one the shutter was released by 

 pulling a string suspended through screw- 

 -eyes on saplings and running thence to a 



scaffold in a tree overhanging the water, 

 where I could release the shutter of a 

 camera by pulling the right string, the 

 deer always stopped when I gave a shrill 

 whistle (see page 134). 



It seems odd now that in the beginning 

 I had selected as an object for the first 

 camera hunts the most cunning and elu- 

 sive of the deer family instead of trying 

 an easier subject, like a porcupine, a 

 squirrel, or some of the many semi-tame 

 birds nesting in the clearing about my 

 camp. Of course, the explanation lay in 

 the fact that I simply wanted to hunt 

 deer, and the camera gave the means of 

 gratifying this desire. 



A QUOTATION FROM THE PAST 



Soon the real and lasting merits of 

 this instrument as a sportsman's adjunct 

 became more and more apparent, and in 

 such belief I wrote in advocacy of this 

 new pastime an article published in 1891. 

 It indicates a violent reaction against use- 

 less destruction, but it at least bears wit- 

 ness to a confidence in the camera as the 

 sportsman's best friend. 



