Notes on the Mammals of Gogebic and Ontonagon Counties, Michigan, 1920: Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology, Number 109Dice, Lee R. (Lee Raymond)
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Notes on the Mammals of Gogebic and Ontonagon Counties, Michigan, 1920: Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology, Number 109
In a swamp of this type three miles southeast of the point arbor-vitae
is the dominant tree, reaching trunk diameters of two feet and more.
Under the dense shade of the high forest crown there are many young
trees of the same species, and the forest has evidently reached a
temporary climax. Of other trees, a few small yellow birch, a few young
firs and hemlocks, and one fallen white spruce (_Picea canadensis_)
were noted. The ground is very wet and there are numerous tiny
streams, which frequently disappear under the ground. Fallen trees and
decaying logs on the ground make a thick tangle, very difficult to
penetrate. The underbrush is scanty; mountain maple is rather common,
and there are a few young black ashes. Much moss grows on the ground
and on the decaying logs.
In a depression two miles south of Little Girl's Point is a mixed
growth of arbor-vitae, black spruce, with a few black ashes. The trees
are mostly small, none of them exceeding about eight inches in trunk
diameter. In August the ground was very wet, there being standing water
in some places, and the ground was heavily covered with sphagnum. This
situation may be considered transitional between the black spruce bog
and the arbor-vitae swamp. No traps for mammals were set in this
situation.
_Bogs_
_Leather leaf bog habitat:_ In the northwestern corner of Fish-hawk
Lake and at several places along the channel connecting Lindsley and
Cisco lakes a heavy growth of leather leaf (_Chamaedaphne calyculata_)
adjoins and overhangs the water, a considerable portion of the growth
actually floating on the water. With the leather leaf is associated
much sweet gale (_Myrica gale_) and alders, and these plants form
almost the entire mat in some of the wetter areas. At other places
sphagnum becomes abundant and the conditions approach those of a
sphagnum bog. Other plants commonly found in the leather leaf bog in
the Cisco Lake Region are the Labrador tea (_Ledum groenlandicum_),
swamp laurel (_Kalmia potifolia_), wild rosemary (_Andromeda
glaucophylla_), small cranberry (_Oxycoccus oxycoccus_), pitcher-plant
(_Sarracenia purpurea_), and small trees of black spruce and tamarack.
In a typical leather leaf bog on the Ontonagon River near the outlet
from Thousand Island Lake a large beaver house is located.
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