44 FORESTS OF SITKA. 



raised even by the Kalushes, who have learned 

 from the Russians the manner of cultivating 

 them, and consider them as a great delicacy. 

 Upon the continent of America, the climate, 

 under the same latitude, is said to be incom- 

 parably better than on this island, although the 

 cold is rather more severe. Great plains are 

 there to be met with, where w^heat could pro- 

 bably be successfully cultivated. 



The forests of Sitka, consisting principally of 

 fir and beech, are lofty and thick. Some of 

 their trees are a hundred and sixty feet in 

 height, and from six to seven feet in diameter. 

 From these noble trunks the Kalushes form 

 their large canoes, which sometimes carry from 

 twenty-five to thirty men. They are laboriously 

 and skilfully constructed ; but the credit their 

 builders may claim for this one branch of in- 

 dustry is nearly all that belongs to a barbarous 

 and worthless race of men. 



Wild and unfruitful as this country appears, 

 the soil is rich, so that its indigenous plants, of 

 which there are no great variety, attain a very 

 large growth. Several kinds of berries, parti- 

 cularly raspberries and black currants, of an 



