132 
THIRTEENTH REPORT. 
except in the immediate vicinity of the light. The dominant forest is 
red oak with some hard and soft maple, principally on the north and 
east sides near the shore. In the latter place there is also a large beech 
tree, the only one on the islands, and a few cottonwoods. Scattered 
throughout the interior are groups and single trees of white and Norway 
pine, white birch and poplar, and around the edges of a small lagoon 
or pond near the west side are a few small tamaracks and one jack pine, 
the latter also the only tree of its kind on the island. Near the center of 
the island there are a few small hemlock trees, and along the present 
beaches juniper and small willows are to be found. 
Little Charity Island is privately owned and is used for a fishing 
station. The effect of this upon the fauna and flora is well marked. The 
large trees have been cut, and it has nearly all been burned over. It 
is now grown up to bushes, only a few large hackberry trees and groups 
of smaller ones, with a few old oaks and some small willows and poplars, 
representing the forest that once grew there. Gull Rock is mostly with- 
out vegetation, but a few small willows and balsam-poplars grow on one 
end of it. 
Owing to the fact that these islands have had no land connection with 
the east or west shores of the bay since the glacial period, it is not sur- 
prising that but few species of indigenous mammals occur in the group. 
The native species are red fox, American hare, cottontail. Say’s brown 
bat. silver-haired bat, red bat and muskrat (one record). It is easy 
to see how most of the species reached the islands from the mainland. 
The American hare, cottontail and fox cross over on the ice in winter. 
In fact, Captain McDonald informed us that he has seen all of these 
species on the ice. He has noted the tracks of the hare and cottontail 
leading from the mainland to the island, and has seen foxes come to the 
island from the mainland. The raccoon and fox squirrel were intro- 
duced by man. It is not definitely known how the single muskrat that 
was observed on Charity Island reached there, but it is safe to conclude 
that it either swam there or crossed on the ice, with the probabilities 
in favor of the latter method. The bats, of course, fly over. 
LIST OF SPECIES. 
1. Vulpes fulvus (Desmarest). Red Fox. — The fox is apparently not 
a regular resident on the islands. Captain McDonald informed us that 
in the winter of 1902-3 a pair of red foxes took up their abode on Charity 
Island and found good living on the hares and cottontails which were 
then common. The ice broke up early in the spring so that the pair 
could not get off the island. In the spring they had caught off most the 
hares and began to catch the poultry, so a hunter and hound were 
brought over from Caseville. One fox was shot and the other was dug 
out of her den (a burrow in the ground, where she was rearing three 
young). No others have been known to breed on the island, but they 
no doubt have done so occasionally, although the island could not fur- 
nish food for any length of time to even one family of such carnivors. 
Captain McDonald informed us that, when chased by hounds in the 
winter, foxes often cross the bay, and one winter as he was spearing, 
a couple of miles from the island, he saw a fox approaching on the ice. 
2. Lepus americanus Erxleben. Varying Hare. — This hare was found 
