APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. Si 5 



coast. At the same time, althongli ashore only six hours, this naturalist 

 "gathered herbs and brought such a quantity to the ship that the 

 describing of ihem took him a considerable time." This description it 

 is said was adopted afterwards in the Flora Slherica. 



Trees were noticed even before landing. They enter into descriptions, 

 and are often introduced to increase the savage wildness of the scene. 

 La Perouse doubts "if the deep valleys of the Alps and the Pyrenees 

 pres(>nt a picture so frightful and at the same time so picturesque, which 

 would deserve to be visited by the curious if it were not at one of the 

 extremities of the earth." (Tom. 13, p. 1 91 .) Lisiansky, as he ai)proached 

 the coast of Sitka, records that "nothing presented itself to the view 

 but iin])enetrable woods reaching from tlie waterside to the very tops 

 of the highest mountains, so wild and gloomy that they appeared more 

 adapted for the residence of wild beasts than of men" (p. 145). Liitke 

 ])ortrays the " savage and picturesque aspect" of the whole north-west 

 coast. (Tom. 1, p. 101.) 



As navigators landed they saw Nature in detail; and here they were 

 impressed by the size of the trees. Cook finds at Prince William Sound 

 " Canada and spruce pine, some of them tolerably large." La Perouse 

 alludes to trees more than once. He describes jiines measuring (5 feet 

 in diameter and 140 feet in height, and then again introduces us to 



"those superb pines fit for the masts of our largest vessels." 

 73 Portlock notices in Cook's Inlet " wood of different kinds in great 



abundance, such as pine, black birch, witch hazel, and poplar; 

 many of the pines large enougli for lower masts to a ship of 400 tons 

 burden;" and then again at Port Etches he noticed "trees of the pine 

 kind, some very large, a good quantity of alder, a kind of hazel, but 

 notlarger than will do for makinghandspikes." Meares reports "woods 

 thick," also "the black pine in great plenty, capable of making excel- 

 lent spars." Vancouver re})orts in latitude 00° 1' " a woodland country." 

 Saner, who Avas there a little later, in the expedition of Billings, saw 

 trees feet in diameter, and 150 feet in height, "excellent wood for ship- 

 building." In Prince William Sound the ship " took in a variety of fine 

 spars," and he proceeds to say, " the timber comprised a variety of pines 

 of immense thickness and height, some entirelj' tough and fibrous, and 

 of these we made our best oars." Lisiansky says that at Kodiak, " for 

 want of fir he made a new bowsprit of one of the pine trees, which 

 answered admirably." Liitke testifies to the " magnificent pine and fir" 

 at Sitka, adding what seems an inconsistent judgment with regard to 

 its durability. Belcher notices Garden Island, in latitude 00° 21', 

 as "covered with pine trees;" and then again at Sitka speaks of a 

 "very fine-grained bright yellow cypress as the most valuable wood, 

 which, besides being used in boats, was exported to the Sandwich 

 Islands in return especially for Chinese goods." 



Turning westward from Cook's Inlet the forests on the sea-line are 

 rarer until they entirely disappear. The first Settlement on the Island 

 of Kodiak was on the south-western coast, but the want of timber 

 there caused its transfer to the north eastern coast, where there are 

 "considerable forests of fine tall trees." But where trees are wanting 

 grass seeins to abound. This is the case with Kodiak, the Peninsula 

 of Alaska, and the Aleutian Islands generally. Of these, Onnalaska, 

 libelled by the immortal verse of Campbell, has been the most described. 

 This well-known island is without trees ; but it seems singularly adapted 

 to the growth of grass, which is often so high as to impede the trav- 

 eller, and to over-toj) even the willows. The mountains themselves are 

 for a considerable distance clothed with rich turf. One of these scenes 



