THE WILD LIFE OF LAKE SUPERIOR 



187 





Photograph by George Shiras, 3d 



PARENT AND YOUNG BEAVER EATING THE BARK OP A POPLAR LOG USED BY THE 



AUTHOR AS BAIT 



Only once did more than one beaver appear on the negative. Here a small poplar log 

 attracted the mother beaver and her youthful offspring. 



birch, soft maple, mountain ash, and 

 balsam, while interspersed the dense for- 

 ests of spruce offered a safe retreat from 

 the hunter and an excellent shelter in the 

 winter, being the only tree never eaten by 

 moose or deer in this region. 



WATCHING FOR MOOSE AT THE SALT LICKS 



However, the apparent abundance of 

 arboreal food was misleading, for it was 

 now seen from the boat that all the lower 

 limbs of the trees referred to had been 

 eaten or destroyed by the animals for 

 some ten feet above the ground, account- 

 ing for the moose just seen in a shallow 

 bay, where the temperature permitted an 

 unusual growth of water plants (see page 



l6 3)-. 



Unlike Grand Island, with its precipi- 

 tous cliffs to the north, most of the ex- 

 posed shore of St. Ignace Island was low, 

 with many bays separated by narrow, 

 rocky points offering suitable camping 

 places, where reefs and shallow waters 

 seemed favorable for the best of trout 

 fishing, while inland were high, rounded 

 hills approaching an altitude of fifteen 

 hundred feet, besides several rocky ridges 

 dividing the island into many basins filled 

 with the purest water, ranging from 



ponds of an acre to a lake four miles long, 

 totaling nearly fifty on an island eight 

 miles by five in size. 



The tents were pitched on a level bank 

 in a well-sheltered grove, at the edge of 

 which flowed a fine trout stream leading 

 from the largest of the interior lakes (see 

 Page 157). 



Although facing the widest portion of 

 Lake Superior, it was our intention to 

 spend most of the time looking for moose 

 in near-by ponds, as well as watching for 

 them at several natural salt licks in a 

 deep valley behind the camp. 



BIG MOOSE HERD LIVING ON WATER PLANTS 



These licks were discovered by two 

 members of the party fifteen years be- 

 fore, when a yacht in which they were 

 cruising ran on a reef. While awaiting 

 the assistance of a tug the island was 

 visited, where numerous caribou tracks 

 about muddy pools indicated the presence 

 of salt springs. It was due to this rather 

 ancient record that we expected to find 

 the moose as successors to the caribou at 

 these resorts, which calculation proved 

 correct. What the camera captured is 

 best told by some of the illustrations ac- 

 companying this article. 



