Journal kept by Bailey on field trip to Michigan and Minnesota, March 23-April 13, 1907

1. [[double underline]] JOURNAL [[/double underline]] [[underline]] 1907 Vernon Bailey [[/underline]]. [[underline]] March 23 [[/underline]] - Saturday. Left Washington at 12M. Pa. R.R. for Marquette, Mich., via Pittsburg, Detroit, Mackinaw & St. Ignace, to investigate destruction of game by wolves in northern Mich., Wis. & Minn. Weather unseasonably warm (90 yesterday & as warm or warmer today) on starting and grass & trees rapidly becoming green. Maples, spice bush, alders, crocuses, caulanthus, & arbutus in blossom. No change in vegetation or its advance noted at Baltimore or Harrisburg or for a long distance beyond. West of Huntington the hemlocks come down on cold slopes but

2. Sycamores still appear on opposite hot slopes. Most of the trees are bare & brown & not recognizable from the Flyer. Dark at Altoona. Reached Pittsburg at 9:45 and during the 15 minutes stop had a hasty visit with Mr. Norman McClintock, a member of the Huron Lake Club & greatly interested in protection of deer & [[insertion]] ^ other [[/insertion]] game from wolves. [[underline]] March 24 [[/underline]] - Sunday - Train delayed at Toledo so we reached Detroit at 8 A.M., one hour late. Found no train goes north on Sunday until 8 P.M. so had to lay over at Detroit all day. Went out to zoo, on Belle Isle in the river - saw a few good animals. A pair of very dark yellowish gray wolves and two nearly white, very large wolves were so good that I hunted up the head keeper, Mr. Griver, and got the history of them. The two dark grays are not very large but in good condition & heavy fur.

3. They were born in the zoo in 1903 from a pair brought in by a man from near Alpina, Mich. (probably captured there). Another pair from the same parents was sent to Toledo & another pair to Rochister. The pair here had 3 pups last year but ate them. Mr. [[Griver?]] thinks they had one pup the year before. [[insertion]] ^ Do not show signs of any this year. [[/insertion]] They are brother & sister as their parents probably were also. They are dark, yellowish gray, [[insertion]] ^ over back & head & tail [[/insertion]] bright [[schracous?]] on upper part of muzzle & along flanks & outer surface of legs, whitish on belly, & inside of leg & throat & chin & including upper lips. Eyes dark yellow, about as top of nose. The larger male is slightly more blackish on back but they are very similar in color & strikingly different from the plains wolves. They are the first live [[underlined]] Canis nubilus [[/underlined]] I ever saw. In the next pen are two 11 year old wolves from Holy Smoke, South Dakota. Received here in 1898 when 2 years old. They are very large & in full long winter coats, very light gray without a trace

4. of yellowish anywhere. Their heads, legs & lower parts are pure white, but a light gray saddle covers the back from the tip of [[mane?]] to rump & the tails are slightly gray. The back of the larger one is slightly darker, but otherwise they are the same. They are much whiter than any in the Nat. Zoo. Their eyes are also white, the same as in my Wyo. pups & the Montana wolves at Washington. Belle Isle is flat & muddy & damp but the animal pens have been filled in the with cinder & then 5 or 6 inches of coarse, white, beach sand. As a result the pens are dry & clean & the animals look as if they had just had a bath. This does not apply to the buffalo yards which are mudholes. All of the animals have plenty of room & are in good condition. Even the polar bears are good & there is one fine grizzly. There are red foxes, coyotes, a fine otter. Blacktail & whitetail deer & some foreign deer.

5. The island is half a mile wide & a few miles long, flat & covered with heavy native timber - See note book for list of trees. Lots of gray, black & fox squirrels live on the island & seemingly on good terms. I counted 7 fox squirrels, 7 black & 6 gray squirrels. The fox squirrels were all light gray above & light yellow below. See note book for list of birds on the island. Great numbers of old oriole nests hang from the tip of drooping elm branches. From one place I could see a dozen nests. A cold wind blows over the island from a wide river full of anchor ice. The wind is in the west & the city is less chilly. [[strikethrough]] Wen [[/strikethrough]] Has mostly the same native trees, however. See list in note book.

6. Went to Detroit Academy of Art out on Jefferson Ave. - A very creditable exhibit - the same old busted lot of casts & many good marbles. A large collection of Ethnological stuff including Indian baskets wrongly named. The paintings are in part fair to good. Two excellent cattle pictures by Howie that you would take for Rose Bonhem's. A good copy of the Death of Mozart & several other large & comparably good pictures. Took a trolly out Woodward Ave. to edge of country so got cross sections of the city. It is apparently of the size & thrift of Minneapolis with possibly more manufacturing & large wholesale houses. Lots of shipping picketed along the wharves. Came back to depo & 3 P.M. to write & read. Cold enough for overcoat all day. Fresh & crisp { no flowers, { not much green.

7. [[underlined]] March 25. [[/underlined]] Monday. Daylight at Rondo. Clear & crisp with heavy frost and particles of snow on cold slopes. Mainly Canadian zone from Rondo to [[Madeivans?]]. Only 2 or 3 red oak bushes seen. Lots of aspen & birch & alder. Tamarac & spruces & libocedrus in swamps. Some scattered hemlock & white pine & lots of old pine stumps. A few elms & black ash. A few red backed, long leaved pines, probably [[underlined]] Pinus resinosa [[/underlined]]. No sign of spring green yet. Many grass fields & some plowed ground. Not much farming. Mainly lumber. One meadow lark & lots of crows. Breakfast at Mackinaw & then our train ran onto the ferry boat & we plowed across the still frozen strait [[strikethrough]] ght [[/strikethrough]] to St. Ignace. A channel is kept broken up in the ice but about half way is full of floating cakes a foot thick. The rest of way it is kept clear by wind. The cakes freeze together & have to be smashed up every trip.

8. At St Ignace the ground is half bare & snow a foot deep in places. The snow increases to Trout Lake, where it becomes practically continuous and about a foot deep. Pure Canadian zone all the way north of the Strait. See lists of trees in note book. Country mainly flat & swampy occasionally high sharp ridges with some rocks. Dense swamps of cedar ([[underlined]] Libocedrus [[/underlined]]) Picea, Tamarack, birches, alders & willows. Extensive growth of young aspens over old burns. Three species of pine common in places where left by fire & ax. [[underlined]] P. strobus [[/underlined]], a long leaved, red backed pine - (P. resinosa?) and a little scrub like virginiana. No gray pine seen. Some sugar maple, elms & ash. Much open country, marsh, burnt swamp, & stumpy, brushy plain. Little lumber & mill towns all along. Not much farming. Some fields & grass lands No fruit trees.

9. West of Creighton the country becomes rough, with steep ridges & heavy timber. The ridges are largely covered with Maple (Acer saccarium) & hemlock & pine. Birches & ash also common on the ridges. The snow is also deeper except on the south slopes which are generally bare. The timber has not been so badly burned & some old pines are standing. At [[Autrain?]] where we strike the lake there is just a sea of white ice as far as one can see. The shores are high and rough & heavily wooded. Near Marquette where we again strike the lake it is all open & blue with tiny icebergs floating here & there. Near Marquette the snow nearly disappears. Reached Marquette at 3 P.M. Went to Hotel Cliftons.

10. [[underlined]] March 26 [[/underlined]] - Left Marquette at 9:25 for Big Bay on a mixed train, freight & passengers & reached B. B. at 11. (30 miles). All the way through timber & much of it heavy pine & hemlock that has not been cut or burned to hurt it. The snow is deep & continuous in the woods. Birch & Big Bay are lumber towns & do a big business. Passed several large lakes & some small rivers. At Big Bay left my baggage except what I could carry on my back & walked 10 miles to the club house, all the way through big, beautiful woods. Followed a half broken road but the crust held most of the time in road so we had no trouble in making good time. Reached the club in 3 1/3 hours.

11. The woods are heavy and almost untouched, mainly hemlock, norway pine, some white pine & scrub (P. virginiana?), lots of [[strikethrough]] b [[/strikethrough]] white & yellow birch, sugar maple, aspens, black ash, a few basswood, lots of Tamarec, cedar, spruce & fir, alders & willows, some mountain ash. Cornus canadensis, Wintergreen, arbutus & arctostaphylus are common. Got one skull of wolf shot not long ago. Saw dozens of deer tracks, several porcupine tracks & one basswood bush lately eaten bare of bark, saw several skunk tracks & lots of white rabbit tracks. Saw a carcass of red fox. Am told there are beaver in half a dozen lakes near here & in all the streams. There are some bear, mink, otter, martins & muskrats.

12 The club is beautifully situated near the end of Pine Lake with Pine river running between the houses. Big pines & hemlocks & an open forest surround the camp of many cabins & a big club house. There are lots of fish in the rivers & I had delicious wall eyed pike for dinner & lake trout for breakfast to say nothing of venison for supper.

13. [[underline]] March 27 [[/underline]] - Started at 7 A.M. on wolf hunt, with snowshoes, backpack of about = 15 lbs, including camera, and grub for 3 days. - A loaf of bread, piece of bacon, box of prunes, tea, coffee, sugar & salt - also box of grapenuts. Tom started with me to get another boy to go, but on Rush Lake we met Earl Sharp, a bright young fellow who offered to go if Henry Hovery would not. Went west to Hovery's homestead on south shore of How Lake. Found his sap buckets all full (helped empty several) so he could not go & Earl went on with me for the trip. Not that I needed a man, but the club people were anxious to send a man for what he would learn & I was glad to have him carry the grub. We took no blankets but plenty of matches & salt.

14. From How Lake we struck south over high ridge (probably 500 feet) and then down a long gulch & creek to the south west corner of Mountain Lake. Camped at the corner of the Lake after about 15 miles over lakes & soft snow. Snowshoeing heavy & slow & wet. Snow 2 to 6 feet deep in in woods & no crust. Did not freeze last night & warm & clear all day. Creeks open & running. Lakes icy & open at edges in places. All day in heavy woods of hemlock, pines (3 sp.) spruce, cedar white & yellow birch, hard & soft maple, [[insertion]] ^ striped maple [[/insertion]] a few basswood, ironwood, red oak, lots of black ash & aspen & in swamp tamarack & Alders. The country has been all lumbered out long ago for white pine & some norway pine, but most of the other timber is untouched.

15. Some of the cedar swamps have been cut out but others are still full of good poles. Made our camp before sundown at S.W. corner of Mountain Lake in a sheltered nook behind a ridge of rocks. A dense growth of cedar, hemlock, abies, & other trees gave additional protection. We piled up logs & boughs at our back & made a soft bed of boughs (spruce & fir & hemlock) [[insertion]] ^ We had no blankets save a thin rubber sheet [[/insertion]] Stacked up a lot of dry wood close by and built a fire against an old dead pine that leaned the other way. The pine was pitchy & sent a fierce heat into our nest & finally drove us out until it burned down about 10 oclock. Then we had a good fire the rest of night & slept over half the time, often an hour without having to poke the fire.

16. The one who got cold first would wake up & rebuild the fire & we would roll over with the cold side toward the warmpth & go to sleep again. The night was not very cold, probably 20 above 0, just cold enough to make a good crust on the snow that held us in the morning. Mammals are scarcer - saw tracks of 2 coon, a few skunk, 1 mink, a few red squirrels, 1 woodchuck, a few porcupine & varying hares, a red fox & a few old wolf tracks in the ice on lakes. Birds are also scarce. Saw a few crows & my man said he saw a robin this morning. & 2 pileated woodpeckers Saw one ruffed grouse & a few woodpeckers. Heard a saw-whet owl in evening & a barred owl. Came about 17 miles today, partly on lakes & the rest on snowshoes & soft snow.

17. [[underlined]] March 28 [[/underlined]] - Were up at daylight and had breakfast of coffee & bacon & bread & prunes & before sunrise had left our nights camp & were & were off on the crust. Crossed the south end of Mountain Lake & struck south on the Bulldog Trail until we struck an [[insertion]] ^ old [[/insertion]] road along the creek where pine logs had been hauled out many years ago. Followed to the west end of this road through heavy timber, then over a low divide to another creek & south through several miles of alder swamp, then south east into an immense cedar swamp where we struck another old timber road. Followed this S.E. for several miles along the edge of the swamp & before sundown camped for the night in the corner of an old [[insertion]] ^ roofless [[/insertion]] lumber camp. Dug out snow so we could build a bed & fire in our corner & where the two log walls would keep off the wind. While the boy was fixing camp & gathering wood for the night I struck S.W. across the

18. swamp into hardwood, hemlock & pine ridges, into some of the best timber I have yet seen, including some fine old white pines. The Cedar swamp through which we have come for 4 or 5 miles is dense & still full of good cedar poles & pasts & some large enough for good saw logs. The timber would be worth several hundred dollars an acre over much of this swamp but it probably all owned. On the north side of the swamp the pine has all been cut for lumber many years ago. The snow soon softened so we had heavy walking for most of the day but made about 17 miles. Were wet & tired at night & glad to eat our supper of bread & tea & a bacon & a spruce grouse & lie down before the fire on a bed of fir & hemlock boughs. The timber today was a mixture of hemlock, pines, spruce & fir & hardwoods on the uplands & cedar & alders in the swamps.

19. Wolf tracks a week old were numerous on the ice at the south end of Mountain lake, but no fresh tracks were seen. A few fox & many wild cat tracks were seen and two otter had chased each other for several miles along the creek. A few old deer tracks were seen in one of the swamps but no fresh tracks. Beaver were numerous in several places where they had dams & houses along the creeks. They are said to be common in most of the lakes too. Photographed one dam & pond & found maples & alders cut for food & building material. There are very few willows or aspens where the beaver are. Porcupine tracks were seen & numerous gnawed birches & maples, & one porcupine was shot from a tall hemlock from which numerous small branches had been cut. She contained one large embryo that would have been born in about a week. It was the size of a red squirrel, well haired & eyes open. Shot a varying hare & scared another into the creek where he got thoroughly soaked before he could get up the steep snow bank on other side.

20. Saw a few ruffed grouse & one Canada grouse. It sat near the trail under a bush & looked so short that I stopped & watch it to see if it was a ruffed, then tried to make it fly but it would not until the boy had thrown 3 snowballs at it. Then it jumped up into a bush & knew it was a spruce grouse & [[anxed?]] it. Found its crop stuffed full of leaves of Pica & nothing else. It was delicious when fried with bacon on a stick, the dark, juicy are closely resembling that of the pinnated grouse, but tenderer & more delicate. Found another place where a wild cat had eaten one on the snow. My boy had never seen one before, tho he has been here for several years. Saw a few Dryobates villosus & pubescens & black capped chickadees & heard a [[Perisarcus?]].

21 [[underlined]] March 29 [[/underlined]]. Slept part of the time but had to build fire about every half hour all night & turn over frequently. Had no trouble in waking up early & getting breakfast & starting as soon as fairly light. Crust not very hard but held up the snow shoes most of way. Continued S.E. along same old lumber road through ceder swamp and soon struck fresh tracks of 3 wolves. They had walked on crust & made tracks only as they broke through now & then. As they had come up the road we followed the tracks back down it for several miles till we reached the West Fork of Salmon Trout. Here the wolves had hunted beaver along the creek & dams & ponds but without any success as far as we could see. At this place it began to rain & snow so we decided to stay over till morning to

22. see if the wolves would not return & to wait for tracking snow. We had come only 5 or 6 miles but the snow was soft so I set the boy making camp & getting wood while I took a round through the woods. I climbed a rocky hill but found no wolf signs & it was so stormy I could not see far. Found an old lumber camp of a dozen tumble down buildings half a mile from our camp but no shelter so returned - helped fix up a rainproof bough shelter capped with my rubber cloth. Got a good fire & lots of wood & dried our clothes & dried boughs for a bed & were fairly comfortable during a stormy day. Ate grapenuts for lunch & saved the rest of our bread for supper & breakfast.

23. I found two porcupines up trees near camp & located them for future provision in case we had to follow wolf tracks away from home the next day. One was a small, probably female, the other a huge old fellow. Both were in the tops of maple trees where they were peeling branches, while several birches & maples [[strikethrough]] were [[/strikethrough]] near by were badly stripped of bark & half a dozen small hemlocks had the tops puled down far enough to kill or ruin the trees. I climbed up another tree & photographed the big fellow at 15 feet after it stopped snowing towards night. Then left them alone in their treetops. Saw the first red squirrel of the trip tho they are common near the club houses. Saw a large beaver track out on one of the dams & as usual lots of rabbit tracks & a few wild cat tracks. Saw no new birds. About half inch of snow fell.

24. [[underlined]] March 30 [[/underlined]]. A very cold night & hard freeze. Did not sleep well as we could not keep warm long at a time. Started early on a meager breakfast of chipped beef, not half enough bread, some grapenuts, 2 prunes & plenty of tea. Struck north, hoping to get to Ives Lake in time for lunch at Mr. Longyears farm, about 10 miles,. Followed down West Fork of Salmon Trout till the map showed where to turn off then struck straight north through the woods. Found lots of deer tracks, trails and yards & soon struck a fresh wolf track. Followed him for sometime but left the tracks when he went over a high ridge to the S.E. He was running & we had evidently started him. Found one large old buck that had been killed and only torn in the neck & ham. Very little eaten. Had been dead a week or so.

25. Pushed north but before we were out of the woods a fierce little blizzard came up & when we struck the open above Lois Lake we had to face a driving storm for about a mile along the shore to the farm. The wind was fierce & biting cold & our faces were soon crusted with ice & our clothes bedded with snow when we reached the houses. We were glad to get in by a fire & & were soon enjoying a good hearty meal at the table of an absent millionaire. After an hours rest we crossed the lake & struck an old road & before night were back at the club whence we started 4 days ago, having made about 20 miles today & about 60 miles all told. Were somewhat lame & tired but in good shape except for blistered heels. The combination of new shoes & showshoe straps had skinned both hind heel cords.

26. [[underlined]] March 31. [[/underlined]] - Sunday morning & we slept in a soft warm bed till 8 oclock & than had a good breakfast & intended to have a good days rest. But I wanted to photograph a deer yard 3 miles down the lake shore so I went with John Gallager & Mr. Perkins after fixing up my feet with a pair of soft rubbers - improvised leggins. Found plenty of deer yards where hundreds of deer had spent the winter in deep snow, keeping trails & well tramped areas in dense woods where they could run back & forth from one place to another & where they could get plenty of evergreen twigs & leaves of fir, cedar, hemlock, yew, ground cedar, and the birds & branch tips of maple & birch & ozier and pick moss & lichens from the tree trunks & logs.

27. Great patches were like barnyards, well packed & tramped, but now the crust is very hard & the deer are leaving the yards & running cross lots thro the woods. We saw several deer & finally one came running up toward us to about 100 feet. I set the camera & photographed it as it stood broadside, hesitating what to do. I told the men to look out, that something was after it, but Tom who insisted on keeping ahead said, no, it just jumped out from under a log. When it had gone we followed down the trail & soon came to the tracks of two wolves that had come after it at full speed till they saw us & turned off the trail. To get rid of the men I sent them on the back tracks of the

28. wolves & I started the other way followed them as fast as I could & without stopping a minute till 4:30. They spent mostly the whole day chasing deer round & round thro the swamps & woods, & probably ran 40 deer, but without catching any. The deer could move at full speed on the crust as well as the wolves & invariably get away. I saw a good many does but did not get sight of the wolves & they got so far ahead that they laid down for quite awhile on a high point overlooking a good deer yard & the icy shore of Lake Superior. Again they went on after more deer & I finally gave them up when about 8 miles from the club and the same distances from

29. Big Bay Station. Tho nearly sundown I started for Big Bay to get some thing to wear on my feet & reached the station at dusk. Staid all night at the section house & was glad of shelter for it was a cold night, 6 above zero. Got a good supper & a soft bed but not half enough covers to keep me warm. Had some genuine maple syrup, boiled on the stove, & pure & delicious. Told wolf stories all the evening to a family of open mouthed wonderers but went to bed early. Pretty tired & sore. Traveled 20 miles or more, carried my snowshoes & camera.

30. [[underlined]] April 1 [[/underlined]] - Got an early breakfast & when the store opened at 7 got a pair of "rubber packs", No. 9, but the smallest in town. They are soft & light & will keep my feet dry & warm without taking off the epidermus in large patches. [[left margin, vertically]] 2 1 5 4 2 [[strikethrough]] 2 [[/strikethrough]] 1 1 2 [[/strikethrough]] Started back and within a quarter of a mile of the station crossed 2 fresh wolf tracks, probably of the same ones I followed yesterday as they came from that direction. Did not follow them far nor another single track seen in the woods later. Came back 5 miles to the bridge across Salmon Trout & then struck south to the southern end of the range of rocky hills (called mountains here) along the east side of Ives Lakes. Found a drove of 5 fresh wolf tracks covering up from the south and over

31. the top of the first rocky ridge, then down and off into the timber after deer. I had enough of following wolves that were hunting deer yesterday, so left those & climbed the next ridge, a burnt over, glacial gorge hogback of granite about 500 feet high. Near the top I struck the tracks of 4 more wolves that seemed to keep in pairs but run together. These followed the whole length & down the other side, while 2 others had come back & crossed their tracks & gone the other way. I followed all of these tracks, forward & back as long as they staid on the ridges but left them when they went into the woods. They explored all the rough & cliffy places but showed no signs of having dens.

32. Leaving this set of ridges I struck north out a still rougher & barer group & found the track of one large old wolf, made during the middle of the day & followed it over the top & down the other side & out into the swamp. Then returning I crossed back over the ridge & took the back track & followed it a mile or two west along the crest of a side ridge, to where it had come up out of the timber from near Ives Lake. It was now nearly sundown so I started home & in the woods crossed 2 more fresh tracks that I did not stop to follow. I am now positive that the wolves are not yet breeding, but some seem to be hunting dens in the rocks.

33. The snow is still 2 to 6 feet deep & continuous excepted for small patches on steep south slopes. In this cold, pure Canadian Zone, they probably bred a month later than in the lower Transition where we have before found their dens. April 15 to May 15 would probably strike their time of young pups. I can do no more here now & shall leave at once to try farther south. There are more wolves here to the square mile than any place I have ever been. I could not have found as much sign in 100 square miles in Wyo. as I have in today's tramp. I also found 4 deer that they had killed & partly eaten.

34. On my way home I stopped at the cabin of "Dutch John" , a crabbid old hermit, who gave me the skulls of a wolf & wild cat & the skin of a great gray owl & told me many interesting things about wolves & deer & wild things. His cabin & clearing are back across a tamarack swamp from the road & he puts salt licks out beyond his potato patch to keep the deer away from the house. They came to his woodpile for salty slops thrown out & keep him awake nights tramping over his board doorsteps & pawing around the house. He had 2 great gray owls nailed to a tree & says they stay all the year. Showed me a flying squirrel skin, the big one. Photographed beaver & beaver & muskrat houses on the way home. 20 miles, tired.

35. [[underlined]] April 2 [[/underlined]] - Have put in pretty hard days & feel sore & lame, so am just cleaning up skulls & getting things ready to start for the train in morning. Have had another good nights sleep & with plenty to eat & the appetite of a wolf I will soon be on a fresh trail. have a 10 mile tramp with my park to get the train tomorrow noon, but that is nothing. Warmer today, cloudy & the snow has become soft. The shore ice has drifted out again in Lake Superior & the blue water is covered with a thousand tiny icebergs.

36. [[underlined]] April 3 [[/underlined]] - A warm night with some rain. Snow soft and team could not go to station so walked out & carried part of my outfit & Tom carried part. Reached Big Bay at Noon & Marquette at 4:30 P.M. Went home with Mr. Perkins, steward of the club and a nice fellow. He has a charming little home and wife in Marquette. Rained all the afternoon. [[underlined]] April 4 [[/underlined]] - Packed specimens & wrote on reports till train time. Leave Marquette at 5:30 for Munising and Grand Island & may stay there a day or more. Snowed nearly all day & 2 inches of fresh snow lies on the ground. Now if it freezes there will be good tracking.

37. [[underlined]] April 5 [[/underlined]] - At Munising, Beach Inn. A cold morning with good fresh tracking snow & a biting north wind off the lake. Mr Jopling got a man & team & outfit & started me for Miner Creek and Chapel Lake along the Pictured Rocks. This country is rocky & may contain wolf dens & seems to be the only available breeding ground near Munising. Mr. Jopling reports a wolf on the Grand Island again this morning & is sending men over to hunt it. The ice is not very safe and the crossing is difficult & somewhat dangerous. It would spoil a day, so I did not go to the Island. Got off about 9 A.M. with J.F. Murry for camp man. Struck east around shore of bay & into woods through Indian Town (a settlement of Chippewaes) and up the shore to Miners River near its mouth, 15 miles from town. Here we found a comfortable lumber camp with stable - lately deserted house, big stove & bunks full of hay & plenty of cooking dishes. Camped here put the horses in the stable & got a late dinner. Then I struck out for a hunt through the woods till sundown.

38. Snow is 2 to 3 feet deep & well crusted with half an inch of fresh snow on top for tracking - Ideal conditions. I followed 3 or 4 miles up the creek on one side & then crossed over & came back on the other side but saw no wolf or deer tracks. Sandstone cliffs border the creek valley but there is no bare ground yet except in an old burning on the north side of creek & no[[strikethrough]] t [[/strikethrough]] rocks there. Aside from a larger cedar swamp up the creek the whole country is dense & beautiful hardwood forest of surprisingly large and thrifty trees, mainly [[strikethrough]] ha [[/strikethrough]] sugar maple, beech, black ash, and in places hemlock & fir and on the flats a few [[strikethrough]] species [[/strikethrough]] of the 3 species of pines - white, norway & scrub. For a few other species & small plants see note book. Wintergrass & arbutus & Limea are abundant where patches of bare ground show. Alders & beeches are the principal brush along the streams. I never saw finer maple timber but they say sap does not run well because the snow is so deep the ground does not freeze. Maple & birch could be out in great quantities of large sawlog size. Beech is abundant & thrifty & often very tall & clear, sometimes 2 feet through.

39. Saw dozens of porcupine tracks & one dead & one live porcupine. The live one was eating bark from the top limbs of a very tall elm. The dead one had been shot from a maple tree & he had killed or ruined by girdling & puling the branches of 4 maples, beech, & a basswood near where he lay. Many tracks go to the rocks as under old tree tops or roots & 2 tracks came down to the cabin where we are located. Many trees are seen in the woods killed or badly injured by them & fully half the maples have scrubby tops because the branches have been killed. Saw lots of rabbit tracks, red squirrel & Tamias tracks, a few fox or bobcat & mink and skunk & woodchuck, & Peromyscus & a few weasel tracks. There are said to be a few badgers here & some martin fishes. There are a few beaver cuttings around the lake just above camp. Much timber has been cut here & run into Lake Superior. A great stack of cedar planks & posts are piled on the bank & the creek is full of cedar logs & ties & piling. It is run out to the lake & rafted to Munising. the shingle mills use any kind of cedar logs.

40. [[underline]] April 6 - [[/underline]] slept comfortably in our bunk & were undisturbed save by the gnawing of a porcupine on the side of the cabin when some old & probably salty boards had been nailed up. I was expecting it but Murry thought it was burglars. The old meat block has been gnawed down 2 or 3 inches on top. Got breakfast by lantern light & started at quarter to 6 through this timber & along the lake shore above the Pictured Rocks to Mosquito Bay where there is another lumber camp not yet deserted. Then crossed Mosquito Co. & on to Chappel Lake, when sandstone cliffs along each side afford good breeding grounds for wolves. Followed along the lines of these cliffs on both sides & found old wolf tracks in most of the caves but no dens. Found lots of old tracks on the lake & one dead deer nearly eaten up. In the woods found two wolf tracks following deer tracks in the swamps & deer yards & on our return cross tracks of 3 wolves going through the woods toward another deer yard.

41. Passed through several large deer yards & found many deer both in the yards & in the woods. Saw 8 deer & fully 1000 fresh tracks of all sizes. Found no dead deer except the one on the lake & the deer we saw ran freely on tops of the crest & did not seem much alarmed. They have well worn trails from one yard to another & still use the trails to some extent. In places they have pawed away the snow to the ground to get water or the green plants & moss. The bushes & branches are well browsed off where ever the deer have been during winter. Blueberry bushes are a favorite & are eaten to stubs. Saw tracks of 100 porcupine at best & lots of gnawings & bushels of pellets in the caves. Fresh beaver cuttings were found on steep slope 100 feet above lake when they had gone up to get aspens & willow. Showshoe rabbits are numerous. Saw several tracks of woodchucks & skunks & coon & wild cat. Lots of red squirrel tracks & chipmunk & [[Peromysan?]] Saw one martin track. Timber same as yesterday. Got back to camp at 3:30, 20 miles. took snowshoes but didnt use em.

42 [[underline]] April 7 [[/underline]] - Sunday. Had an early breakfast & started back to Munising at 7, arriving at 11. Found good roads until near town when our sleigh ride ended in 2 miles of bare ground. Thawing a little when we reached town but soon began to snow & by dark the world is all white again. Mr. Wyman, forester of the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Co. called me up on phone & asked me out to dinner & to see the wolf killed on Grand Island day before yesterday. Wrote careful descriptions of it & of the mounted one caught on the island last winter. Met Mr. Schaff, assistant forester & a Mr. Spencer, in the pulp mill. All three are fine young fellows. We had a good dinner & many things of mutual interest to discuss. Wolves & birds & forestry. Came back to hotel & wrote on report all I could. The Beach Iron stands on the shore & my room looks out over the frozen bay to Grand Island and the lake beyond. Most of the afternoon the snow has cut out the view, but for compensation I will have good tracking snow tomorrow.

48 [[underline]] April 11 [[/underline]] - Mr. Jopling & Mr. Doty [[strikethrough]] had [[/strikethrough] went to Munising yesterday & will not return until this P.M. , so I have the Peter White camp to myself with only two men & a good cook to look after my comfort. After a good breakfast including freshly made maple syrup on beautifully browned cakes Jim & I took a lunch and started up the lake and river. This is the Laughing Whitefish Lake where Shiras has taken most of his photographs of deer, a small lake about a mile long winding thro magnificent forest of hemlock, white pine and cedar, fir, birch, maple birch and ironwood. It is wooded down to the shores except at the ends where there is some marshy and flat land & alder swamps. We followed up the lake on good snowshoeing,

49 and then struck into the woods on the deep, soft snow and followed the creek up to the falls, about 3 miles from the camp. Followed the back track of the wolf I followed yesterday up to a little below the falls and found a fresh track of a wolf that had come in and circled around over the track of the other and then struck off to the west. Neither had gone into the rocks or seemed to be hunting for deer, so we let them go and went on to the falls. The falls are overall about 90 feet high but the lower half is only a cataract over sloping rock, but with the frozen mosses and great ice sheets the whole effect is very pretty. A few superb old white pines stand along the top of the sandstone cliffs of the horseshoe canyon.

50. An otter had climbed to the top of the cliff and slid around on the snow to the creek above the falls. He had also been all along the creek below & in several places back in the woods. A few mink & weasel tracks were seen and many porcupine & rabbit tracks. A few redsquirrel tracks [[insertion]] ^ & [[/insertion]] [[strikethrough]] one [[/strikethrough]] [[overwritten]] fox [[/overwritten]] lynx track were seen On our return the snow had become soft [[strikethrough]] of [[/strikethrough]] and sticky and the snowshoes loaded and dragged heavily on our feet. Found a good drink of sap in the pails as we came back at 5 P.M. tired and wet and with little to show for our trip.

51. [[underline]] April 12. [[/underline]] Another fierce [[strikethrough]] sle [[/strikethrough]] snow storm was raging when we woke up and continued to rage until about 4 P.M. Some 6 inches of fresh snow on top of the last 18 inches makes about 2 feet of fresh snow on 2 feet of old crusted snow in the woods. Packed up and drove out to Deerton and caught the 2:06 train west to Marquette where I have to wait until midnight for the Duluth train. Went to Clifton Hotel 7 put on a white shirt & collar before going to dinner with Mr Jopling at the magnificent home of the Hon. Peter White. Mr. White is one of the oldest residents of this part of the country and probably the best known and most influential.

52. He is a charming old man of great force and mental power a Jethro Bass, well educated a member of the bar, and at one time a member of the Michigan legislature. A widely read and well informed man of the world but apparently a lovely home character. His grand daughter (Miss Jopling) has been with him in Washington part of the winter. Mr. White is surrounded in his big library with his books and he is all the time going to one or another as old friends. He has a beautiful set of Audubon & many rare & old works on travel & exploration. I spent a most enjoyable evening talking over the early days of this region. Mr. White speaks Chippewaw & french.

53 and tells dialect stories. Was very fond of W.H. Drummond who has often been at his camp & who dedicated his book, Johnnie [[Corrogrot?]] to Mr. White. In the guests register at the camp Mr. Drummond had written several of his delightful poems in the French Canadian dialect. Mr. White says that when he came here 60 years ago there were plenty of [[underline]] Moose [[/underline]] and [[underline]] caribou [[/underline]] but no [[underline]] elk [[/underline]] and no [[underline]] deer [[/underline]] in winter. The [[underline]] deer [[/underline]] came up in summer & all went south before the heavy snows & Mr. Jopling also says the deer were shot in great numbers only a few years ago as they migrated southward in the fall, hunters surely taking stands where the deer passed. It is only since the country to the south has settled up & the railroads have been fenced that the deer stay up here in the deep snow

54. Mr. White says the indians told him there used to be lots of [[underline]] elk [[/underline]] here and that 40 years ago there were elk at La Point and other places north of here. [[underline]] Wolves [[/underline]] he says were very abundant in the early days and he has seen well beaten trails where they had traveled in large packs. He surprised 10 one day eating a deer on the ice of a frozen river. Mr. Whites stories of the early days of the Indians are very interesting. He spoke their language & was often taken for an Indian.

55. [[underlined]] April 13 [[/underlined]] Went to bed at 12:30 A.M. in the Duluth train & woke up at daylight at Saxon, Wisconsin. There to Bibou & Iron River and Niagowan the country is mostly rough and hilly and in places rocky, with numerous swamps and lakes and rivers. It has been all heavily timbered but the greater part has been cut or burnt & there is much half open land or barren, stumpy burns. There are many little sawmill towns and some clearing & farms, mostly of grass land & potato patches. The snow is less deep and some of the south slopes are bare. The old snow seems to be all gone except in swamps & dense woods & there have been but a few inches of the fresh snow.

56. Wolves might find plenty of dry side hills through this region and in many places country rough enough for their dens. Rabbit tracks are exceedingly numerous & I see some mink & weasel tracks on the snow. As we approached the lake above toward Duluth the country becomes flat and swampy or marshy with alder & willow & [[?]] & aspens & scattered pines & spruces. There are no tall trees & mainly bushes. To the west the long black range runs back of Duluth, [[strikethrough]] with [[/strikethrough]] heavily patched with snow. The 2 inches of fresh snow here is mostly gone from south slopes. Duluth at 12, not much snow or ice in sight - [[when?]] & sunshiny -

57. Left Duluth at 1.55 P.M. on N.P. for St Paul. Country generally low and level, (rocky in a few places) south to [[strikethrough]] Atkinson [[/strikethrough]] Mooselake, cutout & burnt off & only brushy. Snow all gone but a few patches on [[old?]] slopes. The tree pines & spruces, balsamic, temarack, aspens & red oak are the principal trees. From Moose Lake to Willow River there is lots of young pine in dense areas, some marshes & open ground & more oaks. The first bar oaks seen & thickets of hazel south of Willow River on warm banks. Spruces & 3 pines still common in places. Lots of old pine stumps, farms & meadows & plowed fields. Snow all gone & lakes open. Ground dry, country flat. At Hinckley still among old pine stumps but country open & mostly farming.

58. Hay & grain seem to be principal crops. Ground very stumpy, old pine, Rhus glabra & Phraguintes first seen. Meadowlarks & robins seen, sparrow hawk & red tail. [[underlined]] [[strikethrough]] Brookport [[/strikethrough]] [[Brown?]] [[/underlined]] - grass starting a little, warm & dry. Very little pine, still some old stumps. Bur oaks more common, [[Butter?]] farms. [[underlined]] Pine City [[/underlined]] - White oak, white oak, bur oak, [[sumach?]] common. A few butternut seen. Some old white pines. First cornfield seen, big [[shocbox?]] Elms, birds, aspen, tamarack, alders & willows common, mainly on low ground or in swamps. Last pines seen at Pine City - [[insertion]] First squirrels nest seen. [[/insertion]] Pine Transition beyond. [[underlined]] Rush City [[/underlined]] - Good farming country & mostly settled. First boxelder seen, grass starting, cattle in pastures. [[underlined]] Harris [[/underlined]] - first Geomys hills, Jack oaks abundant.