246 FERNOW 



One group of twelve and another of seven remain; the 

 trees are short and slowly grown, to be sure, but vigorous 

 and in good health, except where fire has damaged some 

 of them. At the time of our visit the largest measured 

 twenty-four inches, the smallest, six inches in diameter, 

 while all were of the same height, twenty-five to thirty 

 feet. The trees had been fruiting heavily the year before, 

 and two smaller ones at a distance were undoubtedly the 

 result of an earlier seed year. Evidently the chances of 

 natural propagation in competition with the heavy growth 

 of grass and weeds, with a late spring, short summer, and 

 cold winds are small, even if ample sources of seed sup- 

 ply were within reach. 



The even tempered, moist climate which the islands of 

 the Alexander Archipelago and the western and southern 

 coasts enjoy, accounts for their luxuriant forest cover of 

 conifers. Luxuriance, however, is a relative term, for 

 while undoubtedly the vegetation, including the under- 

 shrubs and moss which cover the ground, is rank, the de- 

 velopment of the trees, as we shall see further on, is by no 

 means comparable with the matchless growth around 

 Puget Sound, nor is the variety of species as great. 



The Alaska forest lacks the most important timber of 

 the Pacific coast, the red fir or Douglas spruce (JPseu- 

 dotsuga taxifolia) whose northernmost specimens were 

 observed on Princess Royal Island. It lacks the pines, 

 with the exception of the inferior Pinus contorta, which 

 here and there occupies swampy and dry, gravelly situa- 

 tions. None of the magnificent firs of the Sierra and Coast 

 ranges are to be met, the northernmost specimens of 

 Abies amabilis, usually a tree of high elevations, being 

 found on Lowe Inlet, at the very shore, though still in 

 superior form. The small Abies lasiocarpa in dwarfed 

 specimens, remains the only timber-line tree at White 

 Pass, which it has reached, perhaps, from the interior. 



