Vol. XXXIV) Brooxs, Birds of the Chilliwack District, B. C. 29 
of the gigantic cedars remain, and the land then supports a dense 
growth of large alder, willow and maple. 
Sumas Prairie, mentioned so often by John Keast Lord, is a flat 
alluvial plain covered with natural grass and intersected by many 
winding sloughs, the whole being under water at the time of the 
rise of the Fraser River in June and July. 
Sumas Lake is the western boundary of the district —a very 
shallow body of water without vegetation, and at the time of 
extreme low water in mid-winter almost without water. 
The Cascade Mountains rise for the most part like a wall from 
the floor of the valley, the peaks being from 6000 to 8000 feet alti- 
tude. The flanks of the mountains were clothed originally in a 
continuous coniferous forest, but this has been for the most part 
swept by fire, resulting in a dreary tangle of dead trees both stand- 
ing and fallen, with a dense second growth of the typical Pacific 
slope character — a region singularly destitute of bird and animal 
life. 
The Coast Range ends on the north bank of the Fraser, only 
two small isolated mountains of 2000 and 3500 feet elevation 
rising to the south of that river. 
The district lies well within the humid coast belt, the average 
yearly precipitation being about fifty inches. Winters are very 
irregular, occasionally there may be one without any severe frost, 
but in most winters there occur two or three periods of severe cold 
when the temperature drops to near zero, accompanied by a howling 
north wind which invariably lasts for three days or more without 
cessation. The coldest recorded temperature was in the winter of 
1908-09, when the thermometer registered thirteen below zero. 
Snow does not usually lie for long in the valley. On the mountain 
summits it sometimes attains a depth of thirty feet, and persists 
in patches on the highest peaks throughout the summer. 
About the end of June, and in some years early in the month, 
the Fraser, swollen with the snows of the far interior, overflows its 
banks and inundates a large portion of the valley, drowning out the 
nests of many of the ground-nesting birds. Of late years much 
dyking has been done, but to balance this most of the marshes 
have been drained so the region will never accommodate breed- 
ing waterfowl to any extent. The bulk of the land is now cleared 
and given over to intensive agriculture. 
