204 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



growth vegetation in deforested areas 

 plays in the distribution and relative 



numbers of birds and animals is worthy 

 of further comment. 



In the thousands of miles of wilderness 

 surrounding Lake Superior, the present 

 conditions, so far as Nature is concerned, 

 are better for its wild life than before the 

 coming of the white man, centuries ago; 

 for there is a larger and greater variety 

 of food and better shelter than ever be- 

 fore — two great factors in a suitable 

 habitat. 



Other factors of importance are the 

 favorable climatic conditions which about 

 Lake Superior are stabilized and devoid 

 of extremes through the influence of the 

 deeper waters of the lake which remain 

 close to 39 throughout the year. The 

 prevailing northwest winds of summer 

 are cool and bracing, without rain or 

 noticeable humidity, for the warmer and 

 drier air ashore readily absorbs the mois- 

 ture in the air from the lake, producing 

 the exhilaration of high altitudes, free 

 from the heart strain of a rarefied atmos- 

 phere. 



Once unbroken evergreen forests cov- 

 ered much of the land. Back from the 

 waters the tops of the towering pines 

 and hemlocks, interlocking, excluded the 

 warm rays of the sun and the bountiful 

 dews ; so that only a scant vegetation 

 struggled in the perpetual shadows and 

 in the sour soil, brown with the successive 

 fall of needles. 



In these primeval forests there was 

 little food or shelter, for the giant trunks 

 were almost limbless to the green canopy 

 above. In the other sections, where hard- 

 wood forests predominated, conditions 

 were equally unpropitious ; for neither 

 tender bark, leaves, nor budding branches 

 were in reach of browsing animals. 



In the early lumbering operations only 

 the largest trees were cut, the removal 

 hardly leaving a trace, and when one 

 passed through this densely timbered land 

 he seldom expected to see a living thing 

 beyond, perhaps, a porcupine, a red 

 squirrel, or a woodpecker drilling on a 

 dying tree. 



Finally came the period of intensive 

 lumbering, where trees of every kind 

 yielded to the axe or went down beneath 



the crash of a larger neighbor. 



Many times came the warning from 

 experienced hunters that the game was 

 doomed; for the sight of cut-over land 

 piled high with wreckage, the discarded 

 limbs smothering all vegetation and dis- 

 couraging any of a different kind, cer- 

 tainly gave color to these views. But in 

 a few years fires or decay prepared the 

 devastated areas for a new growth, giv- 

 ing assurance of better things. 



Where once stood solid forests of pine, 

 cedar, balsam, and hemlock, these were 

 reproduced, the young trees, how r ever, 

 being low-branched and thick, blocking 

 the driven snow and cutting winds, thus 

 sheltering the game from the eye of man 

 and putting food within easy reach. 



LARGE CLEARINGS CREATED 



Later came the removal of the ma- 

 tured hardwood maples, in hundreds of 

 tracts of twenty to forty acres, creating 

 clearings of unusual size, where the 

 succeeding deciduous growths differed 

 greatly from the original stock, consist- 

 ing of rapidly growing trees like the pop- 

 lar, white birch, cherry, alder, and moun- 

 tain-ash, interspersed with a great variety 

 of berries and low-growing plants, in- 

 cluding clover and timothy, introduced 

 by the wind-scattered fodder of many a 

 logging team. 



Here came the deer, rabbits, bears, 

 grouse, and hundreds of berry- and in- 

 sect-eating songsters, many of them new 

 to the land, while the beaver took posses- 

 sion of streams and lakes bordered with 

 these new growths. 



In this region Nature, despite man's 

 grasping ways, provides more abundantly 

 than ever food and shelter for the birds 

 and animals, and these bounties should be 

 met in an appreciative way, making it pos- 

 sible for the wild life of the upper region 

 to continue furnishing its valuable quota 

 in meeting our necessities and in the 

 gratification of our outdoor pleasures. 



