THE WILD LIFE OF LAKE SUPERIOR 



177 



Photograph by George Shiras, 3d 

 E-EAVpR REPAIRING DAM AT NIGHT 



For the purpose of showing a dam and the beaver at work on it, a break was made one 

 afternoon, and when the animal came after dark to investigate the cause of the falling water, 

 a set camera and flashlight pictured it within the break. Taken in October, 1912, 45 miles 

 west of Marquette (see page 197)- 



trees, everything stands out fot a mo- 

 ment in the white glare of noonday. A 

 dull report, and then a veil of inky dark- 

 ness descends. 



''Just a twenty-fifth of a second has 

 elapsed, but it has been long enough to 

 trace the picture of the deer on the plates 

 of the cameras, and long enough to blind 

 for the moment the eyes of both deer and 

 men. Some place out in the darkness the 

 deer makes a mighty leap. He has sprung 

 toward the boat and a wave of water 

 splashes over its occupants. Again he 

 springs, this time toward the bank. He 

 is beginning to see a little now, and soon 

 he is heard running, as only a frightened 

 deer can, away from the light that looked 

 so beautiful, but was in fact so terrifying. 



"What an account he will have for his 

 brothers and sisters of the. forest of a 

 thing which he himself would not have 



believed if he had not seen it with his 

 own eyes. In the boat, as it slips away 

 from the bank, plates are being changed 

 and the cameras prepared again for an- 

 other mimic battle." 



MAJORITY OP WIPD ANIMALS ARp 

 NOCTURNAL 



In the course of time it became plain 

 to the writer that the easiest and most 

 satisfactory method of picturing wild 

 game was through the use of the flash- 

 light, for by far the greater number of 

 wild animals are nocturnal, and when oc- 

 casionally seen in the daytime can rarely 

 be approached sufficiently near with a 

 camera or when the light is favorable. 



However, it was many years before 

 any one else could be induced to make the 

 effort, for it seemed hard to find one who 

 was both a naturalist and a photographer, 



