434 SKETCH OF THE FLORA OF ALASKA 



for future use. Early in the season the taste is not unpleasant, and the effect is 

 that of a g-entle laxative; l)ut later, when the tree has fairly commenced its sum- 

 mer work, and begun to elaborate its peculiar terebinthinato principle, it is too 

 strong for other than Indian palates, or except as a last resort against starvation. 

 This "girdling" of these trees has resulted in an extensive destruction of them 

 near the Indian villages. 



Thuja gigantea, Nutt. — This magnificent tree grows sometimes to a height of 

 170 feet, and to a diameter of 10 feet and over. The timber is light, easily 

 worked, and tolerably durable. I am not certain that it is found north of the 

 51st or 52d degree of latitude. I have seen boards 20 feet long split from it 

 by the Indians. From it in part the celebrated *' northern canoes" are made. 

 These canoes, ''dug" from the single trunk and afterwards steamed into shape, 

 will often carry four tons. From the wood the Indians also manufacture paddles, 

 dishes, and boxes, some of them exquisitely neat. From the inner bark they 

 twist ropes of great strength ; mats, hats, and baskets are also woven from the 

 same material. The liabSity of the wood to split when exposed to the sun is 

 rather a disadvantage. 



Acer macrophyllum (Large-leaved maple) is found in the valleys of the Pacific 

 slopes as far north as latitude 55°. This tree attains a height of 70 feet and a 



. diameter of two or three feet ; its wood is perhaps the best substitute on the 

 Pacific coast for the hickory of the Atlantic slope; the Indians use it to make 

 snow-shoes, spear-handles, and axo-handles ; from its inner bark they weave 

 baskets, hats, and mats so closely as to hold water. Leaving the headwaters of 

 the Frazer and crossing the mountain range to the west in latitude 35° north, I 

 met this tree first, growing in company with Thuja cxccUa. On the upper waters 

 of the 8kena river I foiuid the Indians using it in preference to any otlier wood, as 

 fuel, during the long, cold winter nights ; frequently they have completely denuded 

 the hill-sides of it. Lower down on the Skena the cottonwood and Thuja mingle 

 with the maple in about equal proportions. The forests there present a most 

 cheering contrast to the sombre hues of the conifers that abound in the vallc}'^ 

 of the Frazer, and almost remind one of the variegated woods of the Atlantic 

 slope ; birches, too, attain there a height they do not reach in the interior valley 

 above mentioned. Ncjwhere have I seen forests more beautiful than those near 

 Ivocher de Bouller on the lower Skena. 



Before concluding this passage on British Columbia I will add a letter from 

 Major F. L. Pope, who, in mid-winter, made a most trying trip from Lake Tatleh 

 to the Pacific via the headwaters of the Steekine river : 



•''The timber on the upper Skena for 50 miles northwest of Bear lake is very 

 thick and of the same kind as around Lake Tatleh, fPinus contorta and Populus.J 

 It averages about afoot in diameter. Still more towards the head-waters of the 



: Skena, open, grassy plains begin to appear, growing more and more frequent as 

 you go north; over these are interspersed trees, (still of the same kind,) but 

 growing apart like trees in a park. At the head of the river, about 4,000 feet 

 above the sea level, conifers are scarce and dwarfed, but these apparently are 

 stili of the same species. When cottonwoods are met with they are of good 

 size. Passing the summit and descending the valley of the Steekine, which 

 runs north for about 100 miles, we still find the same trees, but not so abund- 

 antly. On the upper Steekine are great numbers of small poplars and willows ; 

 here, too, I occasionally found some patches of pine, in which the trees were 

 about 12 feet high, with a coarse, red bark, crooked limbs, and large cones. On 

 the benches along the 'Great caiion' there is very little timber, what there is 

 being small pine growing in patches. After getting through the canon, cotton- 

 v>oods grow in great abundance on the points jutting out into the river; asso- 

 ciated with them are alders and willows without number. As near as I can 

 remember there are no cedars (Thuja) until you approach the coast. I do not 

 recollect seeing any maples, though there may have been some." 



