202 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters . 
aside as a state forest reservation. The lumbered portions to 
the north, east and west, are now covered with a second growth 
of deciduous woods, such as oak, maple and birch. (Fig. 1.) 
Some years ago, a dam was constructed in an arm of Lake 
Kawaguesaga, west of the town of Minocqua, which raised the 
level of this lake and Tomahawk Lake three to four feet. This 
dam was built for the purpose of giving uniform flow to the 
Tomahawk Liver, and also to the Wisconsin Liver, for the 
transportation of lumber rafts. The result of raising the lake 
has been to submerge many low, flat tracts and convert them 
into swamps. One looks aghast at the wholesale manner in 
which fine trees have been killed by the rising of the water level, 
and the question it at once suggested as to why these trees were 
not cut and used before the dam was built; any competent en¬ 
gineer could have easily indicated the lands which would be 
submerged, and many thousands of feet of fine lumber might 
have been saved. These noble trees now stand in the shallow 
water, veritable skeletons whose bleached and outstretched arms 
proclaim man’s short-sighted and wasteful use of nature’s 
bountiful gifts. 
The rising of the water and the consequent flooding of all 
points and low areas about the lake has produced a number of 
interesting habitats, besides providing several typical examples 
of molluscan succession. The time at the writer’s disposal was 
too short to make a survey of the many lakes in the vicinity, 
large and small, or even to make more than a cursory reconnois- 
ance of the western part of Tomahawk Lake. The large lake 
north of the thoroughfare, Lake Kawaguesaga, was not stud¬ 
ied, although a comparison between this lake and Tomahawk 
Lake would doubtless produce some interesting results. 
One day was spent in a study of the Wisconsin Liver at a 
point about four miles northeast of Tomahawk Lake. The 
river was high and swift and little work could be done on the 
Unionidse. Gilmore Creek, a small tributary of the Wisconsin 
Liver, however, produced some interesting naiads. It is to be 
regretted that time was not available for a detailed examination 
of some of the larger lakes in the vicinity, which would doubt- 
