FOREST , CLIMATE , WMXXi? XZOTF. 
41 
its sudden changes and severe storms. What share the forest 
has in the general changes of humidity is not so apparent. It 
seems quite certain that a general and very gradual change from 
a moister to a drier condition has been going on for a long 
time over the entire Lake Region. The behavior of hemlock 
and even of white pine in the matter of distribution is probably 
in part due to this change. How much the forests have done 
to retard the progress of this desiccation can only be inferred. 
On the other hand there are striking changes in the drainage 
conditions which have required but a short time, have taken 
place within the memory of many of the residents, have fairly 
forced themselves on the attention of all experienced and ob¬ 
serving people. These are all too intimately connected with 
the changes in the surface cover to leave in doubt the influence 
of the forest upon drainage. 
The flow of all the larger rivers has changed during the last 
40 years; navigation has been abandoned on the Wisconsin, 
logging and rafting have become more difficult on all rivers, 
and, what is even a far better measure of these important 
changes, the Fox river is failing to furnish the power which it 
formerly supplied in abundance. On all smaller streams simi¬ 
lar observations have been made. The “June freshet/’ which 
in former years could be relied upon in driving operations, has 
ceased on most streams and is uncertain on the rest of them. 
Of the hundreds of miles of corduroy road a goodly per cent, 
has fallen into disuse, the ground on the sides has become dry 
•enough for teams, many swamps of former years are dry, and 
hundreds of others have been converted into hay meadows and 
fields without a foot of ditching. Tamarack stood on parts of 
the present site of Superior, and both cedar, and tamarack were 
mixed through the forests in many places where the mere 
clearing has sufficed to dry the land for the plow. Many of the 
smaller swamps are changed before actual clearing takes place. 
Where the fires following the logging operations have cleaned 
out the swamp thicket, aspen followed the fire exactly as in the 
upland, and though in some cases many years have elapsed, the 
