THE INTERIOR FOREST 24! 



influential in this difference of development. The follow- 

 ing statement is from the Eleventh Census: 



" The whole Nushagak River valley, including Tikchik 

 River and Lake, is densely wooded with trees not more 

 than a foot in diameter, until the distance from the coast 

 and intervening natural obstacles protect the vegetation 

 from the blighting ice-laden Siberian storms, which, 

 though not so low in temperature as the interior blizzards, 

 are yet by far more dangerous, on account of their humid- 

 ity, to animal and vegetable life. Then the diameter of 

 the trees and the density of the primeval forest increase 

 rapidly, so that on the Mulchatna and the Kokhtuli (For- 

 est) Rivers exceptionally large trees may be found in 

 number. On my last winter's exploring journey I meas- 

 ured in a Kokhtuli spruce grove nine trees, each of which 

 was over three feet in diameter." 1 



In Norton Bay, within a quarter of a mile of the sea, 

 groves of spruce grow thickly, but the height of the trees 

 never exceeds forty feet, and the diameter from six to ten 

 inches; and along the banks of the Tanana River Lieu- 

 tenant Allen reports that most of the spruce range from 

 three to eight inches in diameter. This dwarfed condition 

 may in some parts be accounted for by altitude. 



In mountainous parts, as is well known, dwarfed trees 

 occur at high elevations. In this connection it is inter- 

 esting to note that the altitude of timber-line is higher in 

 the interior than on the coast. On the coast it varies from 

 i, 800 to 2,400 feet, while in the interior it has been found 

 as high as 4,000 feet. And even in latitude 68 N., J. H. 

 Turner, 2 who made a journey northward along the bound- 

 ary line from Rampart House on Porcupine River, found, 

 at an altitude of 2,500 feet and " extending eastward to the 

 furthest horizon, a plain, covered with a dense growth of 



Eleventh Census : Population and Resources of Alaska, p. 92, 1893. 

 2 National Geographic Magazine, Vol. IV, p. 196, 1893. 



