No. 4.] DAWSON — BRITISH COLUMBIA. 245 



and yet make no mention of signs of previous visitors in their 

 narrative,* it is probable that Vancouver was correct in his sup- 

 position. Mr. Dail, in the Coast Pilot (p. 193) shows pretty 

 conclusively that the peninsular part of Alaska, west of the 

 150th meridian, is being, or has lately been elevated. Winrows 

 of drift wood in various stages of decay are found above the 

 highest levels ever now attained by the sea, and in the crevices 

 of rocks, fifteen feet above high water, portions of the shelly 

 covering of a species of barnacle are found in situ. He also 

 refers to Sinking Point, but inclines to the belief that the sub- 

 sidence there shown is merely local, which, in view of the other 

 facts here cited it can scarcely be. 



In detailing the observations of his sailing master, Mr. Whid- 

 bey, on another part of the coast, near Admiralty Islandf (near 

 lat, 58°,) more than four hundred miles eastward from Port 

 Chalmers, Vancouver says: — 



u He also states, that in his last excursions several places 

 were seen, where the ocean was evidently encroaching very 

 rapidly on the land, and that the low borders extending from the 

 base of the mountains to the sea side, had, at no very remote 

 period of time, produced tall and stately timber ; as many of 

 their dead truuks were found standing erect, and still rooted fast 

 in the ground, in different stages of decay ;' those being the 

 most perfect that had been the least subject to the influence of 

 the salt water, by which they were surrounded at every flood 

 tide: Such had been the encroachment of the ocean on 

 these shores, that the shorter stumps in some instances at low 

 water mark, were even with or below the surface of the sea. The 

 same appearance had been noted before in Port Chalmers, and 

 on this occasion Mr. Whidbey quotes other instances of similar 

 encroachments, not only in Prince William's Sound, but also iu 

 Cook's Inlet, where he observed similar effects on the shores." 



Dr. J. G. Cooper, in the Natural History of Washington Ter- 

 ritory, makes the following note : — " On the tide meadows 

 about Shoal Water Bay, dead trees of this species (Thuja 

 Gigantea) only, are standing, sometimes in groves, whose age 

 must be immense though impossible to tell accurately. They 



* A Voyage Round the World, and to the North- West Coast of 

 America. London, 1789. 

 f Op. cit. Vol. IV., p. 53. 



