170 GEORGE B. RIGG 



Tundra: Picea sitchensis, Tsuga mertensiana, Pinus contorta, Chamaecyparis 

 nootkatensis , Alnus sinuata, Betula sp. Lycopodium annotinutn. 



Rocks: Empetrum nigrum, Loiseleuria procumbeus, Betula sp. 



Bogs: Sphagnum sp., Empetrum nigrum, Loiseleuria procumbeus. Ledum palus- 

 tre, Kalmia glauca, Oxycoccus oxycoccus, Pinus contorta, Chamaecyparis noot- 

 katensis, Picea sitchensis, Betula glandutosa. 



In the forest the trees were erect and were in every way normal. 

 On the tundra-Hke area the trees were much distorted, many of 

 them being practically prostrate. Betula was prostrate on the 

 rocks but was more or less erect in the bogs, reaching there a 

 height of one foot or more. 



Sphagnum occurs commonly in various places in this tundra 

 as well as elsewhere on the shores of this harbor, but it forms bogs 

 only where the surface is so flat that there is practically no drain- 

 age. The peat in these bogs is brown and fibrous, evidently 

 formed from sphagnum. The maximum depth of it measured 

 was 2| feet. Davis^^ reports beds of peat in southern Alaska 

 from 15 to 20 feet deep and along the Arctic Ocean from 30 to 40 

 feet deep. It is possible, of course, that these may not have been 

 formed exclusively of sphagnum. 



YAKUTAT, MAY 17-22 



There is a tundra perhaps more than 3000 acres in extent 

 situated along the line of the Yakutat and Southern Railway. 

 This railway extends from the salmon cannery on Montia Bay 

 (about 1 mile east of Yakutat post office) to the Situk River 

 at a point near its mouth. The road is about 12 miles long and is 

 used for hauling salmon from the river to the cannery. The can- 

 nery is about 4 miles distant from the nearest point of the tundra. 

 The region between Montia Bay and the tundra is densely wooded 

 with spruce and hemlock. There was evidently considerable un- 

 dergrowth in this forest, but little could be seen of it at the time 

 of our visit, because of the snow. 



This tundra is locally known as ''the prairie" and much of it 

 is treeless. The borders of it have scattered spruce trees and there 



" Davis, C. A., The preparation and use of peat as fuel. In Bulletin 442. 

 U. S. Geological Survey. , 



