14 GRASS LANDS OF THE SOUTH ALASKA COAST. 



The grass lands of the colony site proper consist of about 500 acres 

 of excellent land, covered with a luxuriant growth of bluetop. 

 These lands lie close to the seashore and less than 100 feet above it. 

 Back of these lands are hills 500 to 1,500 feet high, the plateau on the 

 top of which consists in part of extensive grass areas. Much of this 

 grass is bluetop, often G feet high. Other areas are pure grow^ths 

 of Siberian fescue. Interspersed with these are several other 

 good grasses, but none of them in great quantitv. These j^lateau 

 grass lands are apparently very extensive. To render them accessible 

 will, however, require the building of roads or trails up to the easiest 

 slopes. At Anchor Point there is but little grass land near the sea- 

 shore, but on the plateau behind are considerable areas much like 

 those just described. The plateau at this point is, however, much- 

 lower. 



An important circumstance in relation to all of the grass lands of 

 this region lies in the fact that they are underlaid with coal, which is 

 exposed for miles in the bluffs along the coast. In view of this fact 

 it is doubtful if title to the land can be gained by homesteading it. 



At Kenai there are no naturally grassed lands, except the sand 

 dunes along the beach and the marshes lying inside of them. The 

 dunes are covered principally with beach rye and bighead sedge 

 {Carex macrocephala) . In the brackish marshes red fescue and sea- 

 shore grass are plentiful. Here also is found poison parsnip {Cicuta 

 douglasii) in small marshes, and there is a record of some native cows 

 having been killed by it several years ago. 



THE YAKUTAT PLAINS. 



The only extensive areas of grass lands known in southeastern 

 Alaska are those lying in the river valleys near the coast south of 

 Yakutat. Inasmuch as these lands have been several times referred 

 to in reports, and as they are now in part accessible owing to the 

 building of the Yakutat and Southern Railway, a careful examina- 

 tion was made of them. The above-mentioned railway has been built 

 primarily to reach the several rich salmon streams flowing into the 

 ocean south of Yakutat, it being impracticable to fish them by ap- 

 proach from the ocean. This railway is projected to be built to the 

 Alsek River, a distance of 45 miles. At present it is built only to 

 the Setuck River, 10 miles from Yakutat. 



Practically the whole of this region is an old glacial moraine, com- 

 posed of fine gravel, which slopes very gently to the seashore. The 

 land close to the seashore is somewdiat higher than that lying l^ehind, 

 and is heavily timbered. Owing to this strip of higher land most 

 of the streams flow parallel to the coast for some distance near their 

 debouchments. It is along the valleys of these streams that the grass 



