ALASKA. 221 



These {jieat level, low areas, so peculiar to this island, are 

 made up of tine granitic drift, lined at the sea margin with sand; 

 the hills and hill-ranges are rich in color, with deep blue-black 

 ])atehes caused by protrusions of trap; l)ut no shrubbery what- 

 ever grows on those at the east end and north end of the island^ 

 save the creeping salix, dwarfed and stunted — cryptogamic 

 plants chiefly. The main body of the range is coini)osed of 

 reddish, coarse and tine grained feldspathic granite, with abun- 

 dant trap protrusions, which weather out and fall down upon 

 the flanks of the ridges in dark patches and streaks, contrast- 

 ing, at a distance of eight or ten miles, very sharply with the 

 main ground of pinkish rock, moss-grown, and colored here and 

 there with the greenish-russet tinge peculiar to such vegeta- 

 tion; this dark marking of the trap, at a little distance, ai)pears 

 like low-growing shrubbery. Snow and ice lay in the gullies 

 and on the hill-sides. 



The low plains have the russet yellowish green peculiar to 

 the tundra of the north; the sand is a bright light brown. 

 Small streams flow down from the hills and empty into the sea 

 and lakes, in which we found a few parr or young salmon ; the 

 lakes and lagoons are fairly stocked with a white-fish — nothing 

 else of this kind. 



The entire expanse of the lowlands over which we traveled 

 was like a great sponge filled and overrunning with water, the 

 chief vegetation upon it being the beautiful tufted or plumed 

 grass, [EriopUorum,,) bearing exquisite tassels of white, silkeu 

 floss; this grass, in conjunction with several cryptogams, a few 

 scattered Ruhus cliamoemorus and Empetrnm^ make up the rich 

 russet-green, flecked with gray-green spots, which mark these 

 great marshy tracts in the Alaskan country. There are many 

 places w^here this vegetation, during ages past, has decayed and 

 formed bog-holes or pools, into which the pedestrian will mire 

 down to his waist at a single step. 



A small succincay or land-snail, was very abundant on these 

 flats, near our landing at Northei^st Point, and all along the 

 shore-line we saw an abundance of drift-wood, logs, and pieces, 

 most of it pine or spruce, a few poplar sticks, and a luimber of 

 unrecognizable twisted knots. 



Very little algcCy or sea-weed, or any marine life whatever, was 

 evident from the surf-castings ; only a few mussels and small 

 conch-shells, {Fusus.) The beach is made up, in some places 



