158 
FOREST AND STREAM 
March, 1918 
THE ALBINO DEER HERD OF GRAND ISLAND 
BY REASON OF ITS ISOLATION GRAND ISLAND IN LAKE SUPERIOR IS A NATURAL 
GAME PRESERVE AND BOASTS AN INCREASING HERD OF NATIVE WHITE DEER 
By GEORGE SHIRAS, 3d, of the Governing Board of FOREST AND STREAM 
L YING athwart the entrance of one of 
the few deep bays on the south shore 
of Lake Superior is Grand Island, ever 
true to its name in size and beauty. Term¬ 
inating the westerly end of the famous 
Pictured Rocks, its giant, sandstone cliffs of 
500 feet face 150 miles of open water, while 
the nearly land-locked waters on the inner 
side afford the only natural harbor for 200 
miles. This was the camping place of the 
Chippewa Indians for many centuries, and, 
later, a Hudson’s Bay Post, with the inter¬ 
esting life incident thereto, was established 
in this same convenient location. 
When tourist travel began, on the com¬ 
pletion of the first lock at Sault Ste. Marie, 
in 1855, this precipitous part of the coast, 
with its varied colored cliffs and castellated 
rocks, was seen at close range, from the 
deck of passenger steamers. Having a 
shoreline of about 40 miles, heavily forested 
with conifers and hardwood, containing 
lakes and ponds with overflow streams, as 
well as natural salt licks, the Island was 
always the resort of wild game. 
When a youth I camped each season with 
elder members of my family on the oppo¬ 
site shores, where so abundant were the 
trout, deer, wild pigeons and grouse that 
only on rare occasions was the Island vis¬ 
ited. Whenever I ventured into the dark 
and tangled forests it seemed to me that the 
game, especially the deer, had inherited a 
greater degree of sagacity than those roam¬ 
ing in comparative safety throughout the 
unbroken wilderness ashore; due, doubtless, 
The white fawn beside its normal mother 
to peril of island segregation and the in¬ 
herited fear that comes from ever-present 
enemies, be they the red man of the past 
or the red-handed white variety of the pres¬ 
ent with his more dangerous weapons. 
By a providential happening, this beauti¬ 
ful Island has been saved from the ravages 
of the axe and the too deadly use of the 
gun, for a number of years ago it was 
acquired by a mining and lumber company, 
when purchasing a larger tract ashore. Un¬ 
like many of the pioneer corporations of 
The new albino buck is a perfect specimen 
the West, this concern has always shown a 
commendable interest in the welfare of the 
various communities in which it carries on 
business, by endeavoring to leave a fair 
equivalent in place of that which must be 
destroyed. It was this spirit which led to 
an extensive effort to protect the native 
wild game and to introduce new or foreign 
species most likely to succeed in this north¬ 
ern country. Starting with a hundred or 
more deer, moose were introduced, together 
with elk, caribou, black-tail deer, antelope 
and several hundred pair of Scandinavian 
game birds. For the use of the last-named 
thousands of young Scotch firs were planted 
to provide their natural winter food. The 
results of this experiment are interesting 
and of value for the future. 
T HE Scandinavian birds, principally ca¬ 
percailzie, raised a brood or two and 
then fell victims to birds of prey and 
ground vermin, showing their inadaptability 
in a country otherwise suitable because the 
predacious foes were numerous and differ¬ 
ent from those across the sea. 
The first herd of Newfoundland caribou, 
on a stormy winter night, went headlong to 
their death when pursued by a stray tim¬ 
ber wolf, leaping from one of the higher 
wooded cliffs into Lake Superior, under the 
sheep-like influence that causes these ani¬ 
mals to follow a leader and to regard the 
distance traveled, rather than cunning eva¬ 
sion, the best means of eluding a pursuing 
foe. The entire herd perished. 
The next herd of caribou developed both 
species of bot-fly that has always proved 
such a dreadful and unsightly affliction on 
their native island, but, unable to suffer 
and recover as in their original habitat, 
these animals all came to a pitiful end. 
Again, another wolf crossed on the ice and, 
getting beneath the game fence confining 
the animals to the higher ground, soon put 
an end to the black-tail deer. They lacked 
the elusiveness of the white-tail when pur¬ 
sued by a ruthless but well-known enemy, 
while the antelope, as rather expected, 
found the few clearings too small for their 
roaming habits, and in the deep snows char¬ 
acterizing the upper lake region, gave up 
the struggle for existence. 
The moose at first thrived and bid fair 
to succeed in a country adapted to their 
ways, but on the tremendous increase in the 
white-tail deer and elk, they refused to 
travel the runways of their uncongenial 
rivals, secreting themselves in a swamp 
bordering a small lake, where lack of range 
and food brought on disease, and then these 
morose and stolid animals vanished; the 
usual result with moose w T hen too confined, 
and accounting for the rarity with which 
they are found in zoological parks. 
The native white-tail, therefore, won the 
day against all enforced intruders except 
the elk. In these two species, therefore, we 
have the ones best adapted for the unoc¬ 
cupied ranges throughout the more easterly 
part of the country. A continued closed 
season on an island, however big as it may 
be, will finally bring most animals face to 
face with an unavoidable enemy—starva¬ 
tion. Thus, it became necessary to supply 
food in winter, besides shipping hundreds 
of deer and surplus elk to parks and game 
preserves, followed still later by an open 
season on the deer. 
The albino male ancestor of the herd 
I F, however, this long and costly effort to 
make Grand Island the permanent home 
of many new species has proved dis¬ 
appointing, an unexpected reward has come, 
which may eventually prove of greater 
value and interest than the fulfillment of 
