THE WILD LIFE OF LAKE SUPERIOR 



18 



Photograph by George Shiras, 3d 



THE LODGE OF THE RIVER COLONY OF BEAVERS 



Showing a great collection of brush and small logs stored in the pool before the house for 

 their winter supply of food (see page 181). 



antelope, and several hundred pairs of 

 Scandinavian game birds. For the use 

 of the last-named, thousands of young 

 Scotch firs were successfully planted, to 

 provide their natural winter food. The 

 results of this experiment are interesting 

 and of value for the future. 



The Scandinavian birds, principally 

 capercailzie, raised a brood or two, and 

 then fell victims to birds of prey and 

 ground vermin, showing their inadapta- 

 bility in a country otherwise suitable. 

 Their foes were too numerous and were 

 different from those across the sea. 



A HERD OE CARIBOU PLUNGES TO DEATH 



The first herd of Newfoundland cari- 

 bou on a stormy winter night went head- 

 long to their death when pursued by a 

 stray timber-wolf. They leaped from 

 one of the higher wooded cliffs into Lake 

 Superior, under the sheep-like influence 

 that causes these animals to follow a 

 leader and to regard the distance traveled 

 rather than cunning evasion the best 

 means of eluding a pursuing foe. The 

 entire herd perished (see page 144). 



The next importation of caribou de- 

 veloped both species of bot-fly that have 

 always proved such a dreadful and un- 

 sightly affliction on their native island; 

 but, unable to suffer and recover, as in 



their original habitat, these animals also 

 came to a pitiful end. 



Again, a wolf crossed on the ice and, 

 getting beneath the game fence confining 

 the animals to the higher ground, soon 

 put an end to the black-tail deer, for they 

 lacked the elusiveness of the white-tail ; 

 while the antelope, as rather expected, 

 found the few clearings too small for 

 their roaming habits, and in the deep 

 snows characterizing the upper lake re- 

 gion they gave up the struggle for exist- 

 ence. 



THE MOROSE MOOSE VANISHED, TOO 



The moose at first thrived and bid fair 

 to succeed in a country adapted to their 

 ways, but on the tremendous increase in 

 the white-tail deer and elk, they refused 

 to travel the runways of their uncon- 

 genial rivals. They secreted themselves 

 in a swamp bordering a small lake, where 

 lack of range and food brought on dis- 

 ease, and then these morose and stolid 

 animals vanished, the usual result with 

 moose when too confined — a fact which 

 accounts for the rarity with which they 

 are found in zoological parks. 



The native white-tail, therefore, won 

 the day against all enforced intruders ex- 

 cept the elk. Consequently in these two 

 species we have the ones best adapted for 



