The Biological Station of the University 

 of Michigan 



A station for instruction and research in biology will be main- 

 tained by the University of Michigan, for the twelfth season, as a 

 part of its regular Summer Session, during the eight weeks from 

 June 28 to August 20, inclusive, 1920. 



LOCATION 



The Station is located near the Engineering Camp of the Uni- 

 versity on a tract of about 3200 acres of land owned by the Univer- 

 sity and stretching from Douglas Lake to Burt Lake in Cheboygan 

 County, Michigan, 17 miles south of the Straits of Mackinac. This 

 region, , diversiiied by hills and valleys, was formerly covered by 

 forests of hardwoods and conifers. Small tracts of the former still 

 remain. It contains many lakes of clear water, unsurpassed in the 

 state for size, depth, and beauty of setting. The elevation of the 

 camp, between one and two hundred feet above Lake Michigan, in- 

 sures cool nights. 



Six miles to the west of the camp on the Grand Rapicfs and In- 

 diana Railway is the nearest railroad station, Pellston, a town of 

 some 1,300 inhabitants, with a bank and a variety of retail establish- 

 ments. Topinabee, on the Michigan Central Railway, is 8 miles from 

 the camp. Fifteen miles to the northeast, also on the Michigan .Cen- 

 tral Railway, is Cheboygan. A state road connects these points and 

 passes near the laboratory. Except for two small summer resorts on 

 Douglas Lake the region for miles about is almost uninhabited. 

 Douglas Lake is two and one-half miles wide and nearly four miles 

 long. Its shores are everywhere wooded, in some places low and 

 receding, in others rising in terraced bluffs 70 feet in height. The 

 beach is of clean sand and the lake bottom slopes gradually into deep 

 water. 



OPPORTUNITIES FOR BIOLOGICAL WORK 



The location of the Biological Station in the transition zone be- 

 tween the northern eastern coniferous forest area and the central 

 deciduous forest of hardwood vegetation makes easy the study of both 

 types of vegetational associations. No other biological station in the 

 United States is favorably located for this kind of study. 



Within the region three types of vegetation stand out very con- 

 spicuously, each covering considerable area. The better soil of the 

 uplands is somewhat clayey and loamy and supports the "hardwood" 

 forest, containing such trees as sugar maple, beech, hemlock, white 

 ash and basswood. Areas showing various stages of second growth 

 as well as virgin conditions are within easy reach, although the best 

 forests are about 9 miles west of the station. 



The poorer soil of the uplands is very sandy. Formerly support- 



