American Beaver His Works Author:Lewis Henry Morgan Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. BEAVER DAMS. Remarkable Beaver District—Number of Beaver Unnis—Other Works— Character of the Region—Beavers now Abundant—Map of Area—Objec... more »t of Dams—Their Great Age—Of Two Kinds — Interlaced Stick-Dam— Solid Bank Dam—Great Beaver Dam at Grass Lake—Its Dimensions— Surrounding Landscape—Mode of Construction—Lower Face—Water Face—Great Curve—Mode of discharging Surplus Water—Artistic Appearance of this Dam—Necessity for Continuous Repairs—Measurements —Cubic Contents—Photograph—Manner of taking same—Relation of Dam below—Same of one above—Manner of Repairing Dams. The particular beaver district which I have selected for presentation is situated upon the summit level of the coast range of hills that skirt the southwest shore of Lake Superior, immediately west of Marquette. It is the district shown upon the map. In length, from east to west, it is eight miles, and six miles broad, from north to south. This area is traversed by a small stream, known as Carp River, which empties into Lake Superior, and also by the Ely Branch of the Esconauba1 River, which rises in this area and flows southward into Lake Michigan. It is, therefore, seen to embrace a portion of the dividing ridge that separates the drainage of the two great lakes, with slopes in both directions. Within this district are situated the three remarkable hills of rock iron ore, now so well known throughout the country as the Jackson, Cleveland, and Lake Superior Iron Mines,besides several other iron locations of great value. These are but the commencement of those vast ferruginous deposits which distinguish this portion of Upper Michigan over all other parts of the United States.1 Lake Angeline, situated upon the summit level of the coast range, is 850 feet above the level of Lake Superior, from which i...« less