Young hardwood forest stage: On the eastern slope of a low ridge at Birch Point, Cisco Lake, a young hardwood forest is rapidly replacing a former growth of paper birches which has followed a fire. In this growth numerous old paper birches still persist, but they are being strongly crowded by a thick growth of vigorous young sugar maples, some of which have trunk diameters up to about eight inches, and which form a dense shade. Among the maples are numerous young firs and a few young hemlocks and arbor-vitae. The ground is mostly bare, being scantily covered by leaves. The soil is moist, but there is no grass and little brush. In this habitat deer-mice were taken, and one red squirrel was seen.
Artificial Conditions
Overflow swamp habitat: Due to the rise in water-level of the lakes of the Cisco Lake chain many low areas of forest have been flooded and killed. Many of the dead trunks of these trees still remain standing, mixed with fallen and decaying logs in the water. Locally these habitats are called "overflow swamps," a name here adopted for the habitat. There is little living vegetation in these swamps, an occasional water lily being almost the only plant present. Porcupines commonly walk out on the logs of the swamp to secure the water lily leaves, and probably the mink occasionally runs over the logs in its movements along the waterways.
Cultivated-field habitat: Cleared fields occur only sparingly in the regions visited, and these fields are small in size. No study of their inhabitants was made, though silver-haired bats were collected while they were flying over a small clearing in the Little Girl's Point Region.
Edificarian habitat: Towns and buildings are not very common in northern Michigan. In and around a cabin on Lindsley Lake a number of deer-mice were trapped, and signs that porcupines had invaded the cabin were noted.
Annotated List of Mammals
Condylura cristata. Star-nosed Mole.
Tall-sedge, 2.
Two were trapped September 3 and 5, 1920, in a short, open runway in very moist soil at the edge of a small ditch running through tall sedges in a beaver meadow near Gogebic Lake, Ontonagon County.