SOUTH-COAST DISTRICT (A) 
The southern border of Alaska consists of a ragged strip of coast 
indented by deep, fiord-like bays and by narrow channels that so 
intersect as to cut ofif hundreds of islands. At varying distances, 
but never far from the ocean, stand lofty mountains capped with 
snow-fields and glaciers, protecting the coastal valleys and islands 
from the cold north and northeast winds. The Coast Range continues 
northward from British Columbia as far as Icy Strait and Lynn 
Canal, beyond which the massive uplift of the St. Elias Alps presents 
Sketch-Map of .\laska, Showing- Areas of Faunal Districts (see page 8), 
and the Situations of Federal Bird Reservations (see page 72) 
hardly more than ice-cliffs to the sea until the mouth of Copper River 
is reached. Thence westward a marginal coast of considerable width, 
cut by many rivers and inlets, fringed with peninsulas and islands, 
and walled by mountains, extends to the base of the Alaska Peninsula. 
This long coastal belt receives from the prevailing westerly 
winds the warmth and moisture of the Pacific Ocean, shed upon it 
copiously by the chilling effect of the mountains, against which the 
clouds incessantly drift. Hence all this district, except the glacial 
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