If the paddle and moccasin of the fur trader had been the pathfinder for the lake region, the axe of the lumberman and the pick of the miner who followed them opened up and cleared the wilderness. The fur trader had discovered and explored the wilderness. He was driven out by the lumberman and miner, who spoiled his field with such speed that in a decade or two fur trading as a leading industry was banished to more distant regions. The newcomers made a place for their successors, the pioneer farmers and settlers, by clearing and preparing the country. Extensive lumbering and mining operations came only with the Americans. For two hundred years the French and English tried to keep the western part of the lake region a wilderness and preserve for hunting. The French did it by instinct, for they preferred the wild, free life it offered them; the English did it by policy. In the Parliament of Great Britain leading legislators argued for the restriction of immigration, so that the hunting-grounds should not be disturbed. By a royal proclamation of 1763 the valley of the Ohio and the country about the Great Lakes was declared closed to settlement or purchase of land without special leave or license. A forest preserve was created, and the northwest country was designated by the English “the habitation of bears and beavers.” Only with the coming of the Americans was the lake region developed, and the first signs of the approaching civilization were the cutting down of forests and the mining of copper and iron deposits.