27

Beaver activity
12 June 1927
Marshalls Bay, Ontario, Canada

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Charles Macnamara studied a beaver colony along Elliott's Creek near Marshall's Bay over a fourteen year period. Two albums which contain over 450 prints are deposited at the Arnprior & District Archives. The first was produced between 1921 and 1928; the second covers the period from 1929 to 1935. The activities which he documented were tree felling, wood transport, dam building, houses, food storage and winter work. Macnamara tried to have his study published, but it was rejected because it contained too many photographs. A duplicate of Beaver Techniques 'A Study of the Working Method of a Beaver Colony' was donated to Dr. J. R. Dymond at the Royal Ontario Museum in 1945.

29

Beaver lodge
12 June 1927
Marshalls Bay, Ontario, Canada

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This beaver house was photographed June 12, 1927. That year, Macnamara obtained 'oblique prints' (areal photographs) of the beaver creek (Elliott's), McLachlin Bros. lumber yard and the Town of Arnprior, which were taken by the Royal Canadian Air Force. In 1928, Macnamara corresponded with the Dept. of Biology at the University of Toronto and other experts about Pliny's references to the Beaver. He wrote 'The Unnatural History of the Beaver, in the Canadian Field Naturalist in 1931.

31

Dam 4
16 October 1927
Marshalls Bay, Ontario, Canada

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Macnamara used a Proxar lens to photograph 'Dam No. 4'. Just as McLachlin Bros. numbered their mills, Macnamara kept track of the swamps and dams he frequented by numbering them.

In a letter to Charles in 1931, Richard Finnie mentioned that "at the Motion Picture Bureau yesterday I saw some marvelous shots of beavers taken recently for the Parks Branch, on Grey Owl's ranch in Manitoba. I am sure nothing of the sort has ever before been filmed. We'll arrange a special screening the next time you are in Ottawa."

It is not known if Macnamara ever watched the Grey Owl film or if he was affected by the type of work or promotional activity that Grey Owl was undertaking in the 1930's for the protection of the beaver in Canada.

33

Ginseng
1929
Marshalls Bay, Ontario, Canada

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"This little group of ginseng has been growing for many years in a pocket of earth between limestone rocks near the 'springtime' waterfall on the Marshalls Bay road. The spindle shaped roots of the plants must be several inches long now, but ginseng is so rare, I hope no one ever digs them up. The colony had a narrow escape a couple of years ago when Mrs. Elliott's woodcutters piled cordwood over it. I discovered the dark deed in time, and spent a hard half-hour moving the woodpile. If the woodcutters noticed the transfer, they must have wondered who moved that wood, and why."

35

Pitcher plant
1938

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Macnamara may have found this pitcher plant on an excursion to either Loney's Lake, the Eardley escarpment or Cumbermere which he took in 1938. He liked to photograph plants in their natural habitat and then remove parts for later analysis.

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Pitcher plant in blossom.
1938

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A page of Macnamara's "Sundries No. 1" illustrates how Macnamara took a scientific approach to his study of flora and fauna. The photograph at bottom right is "an enlarged view of stiff hairs in throat of Pitcher Plant leaf which prevent egress of insect victim".

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Spirogyra
1938
Arnprior, Ontario, Canada

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"A naturalist sees nothing repulsive about the growth, so I pick up a lump of it and carry it home in a pail for examination. Floating in a porcelain dish, it is seen to be made up of a vast number of long fine hairs, light green in color, which look as if they might have been clipped from the head of a water pixie having her hair cropped."