JOHNSON — MAMMALS OF MINNESOTA 
33 
NOTES ON THE MAMMALS OF NORTHERN LAKE COUNTY, 
MINNESOTA 
By Charles Eugene Johnson 
Lake County, Minnesota, lies well within the Canadian life zone. 
Its northern two-thirds, approximately, is in the Hudson’s Bay drain- 
age basin. The portion with which the following notes are concerned 
is included in what is known as the Superior National Forest and is a 
large forest-covered area the surface of which is somewhat hilly and 
rough but abundantly supplied with lakes and streams. The princi- 
pal forest trees are spruce, jack-pine, balsam fir, cedar, a certain amount 
of Norway pine and white pine, and birch and poplar. Dense growths 
of alder fringe many of the streams but here and there the water courses 
are bordered by strips of marsh land of varying widths; and bogs and 
swamps are of frequent occurrence. Altogether there is a considerable 
variety of habitat so that the region is in many respects ideal as a wild 
life preserve. It is uninhabited and conditions are essentially undis- 
turbed by man except in one or two portions where the timber had 
been removed a good many years ago, or more recently as indicated 
subsequently. Since the area was made a forest and game preserve 
some ten or more years ago the wild life within it has enjoyed full pro- 
tection, but previous to that time it had been extensively trapped. 
Very recently a limited number of reliable trappers have been licensed 
by the State Game Commissioner to enter the territory to trap wolves 
and also a number of other carnivorous fur-bearers which were believed 
to be sufficiently plentiful to warrant a certain amount of trapping. 
The following list, with the exceptions therein stated, contains the 
mammalian species observed and taken by me personally in the course 
of a number of summers devoted principally to motion-picture photog- 
raphy of Minnesota big game, under the patronage of Mr. James F. 
Bell of Minneapolis. This work was carried on during the seasons of 
1912 to 1915 inclusive and the specimens taken within this period are 
in the collections of the Zoological Museum, University of Minnesota. 
In the latter part of last summer (1920) I returned to this region for a 
brief survey of the territory covered in the previous years and some 
of the changes that had taken place are remarked upon later in this 
paper. For some of the smaller mammals listed the present records 
are too meager to establish either their relative abundance or their 
distribution within the area in question. It is my hope, however, if 
opportunity offers, to add to these notes in the future. 
JOTTENAIj of mammalogy, VOL. 3 , NO. 1 
