'774 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts , and Letters. 
there a few have been left, and some of the young or defective 
trees still stand. There is a good showing of oak, maple, ash 
and birch. Where clearings are made, the poplars are taking 
posssession. The land is rapidly being brought under cultivation 
as the farmer supersedes the lumberman. The surface of the 
country is slightly rolling; the characteristic feature of the 
topography is the great number of small lakes and pools. A 
considerable portion of the land is swamp; in such places are 
dense growths of tamarack. Lake Spooner has large swamp 
areas leading from its northern and eastern shores. In these 
marshes are found the cranberry, pitcher-plants, and several 
orchids. In only two places are the shores moderately high, 
rising some thirty feet from the water. 
In the lower end of the lake are four islands. The first, 
Porter’s Island, is high and has a fine group of white pines; 
the next, Harper’s Island, the largest, is thickly covered with 
underbrush and has several kinds of trees other than pine, while 
part of the surface is low and swampy. Twin Islands lie in 
the enlarged lower end, about half a mile from the outlet. The 
two islands comprise an area of about seven and one-half 
acres according to the government survey. This area is about 
equally divided between the two islands and the connecting 
marsh. The upper island was chosen for the study as it has 
been less disturbed. So far as is known, it has not been occu¬ 
pied except for a period of six weeks in the summer of 1903, 
when over-flow tents from the camp on the other island were 
placed there. The owners, Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Lighty of 
Madison, Wisconsin, have allowed the island to remain as far 
as possible in the natural state. The undergrowth has been 
much injured, however, in the last two years by rabbits, which 
becoming abundant on the mainland, have crossed to the islands 
on the ice in winter, and fed on the buds and bark. 
The southeastern end of the island lies in a narrowed part 
of the lake, about thirty meters from the nearest shore on one 
side, the east, and half that distance from the other, to the 
south. The island is oblong in form, about a hundred meters 
in its greatest length, from east to west, and about thirty-five 
meters in greatest width. On the south-east it runs to a 
