THE COAST FOREST 247 



The giant arborvitae or red cedar {Thuja plicata)^ to 

 be sure, enters this territory, but only in small numbers, 

 and is soon lost, not occurring farther north than Prince 

 of Wales Island, although on the inside passage it was 

 observed at Wrangell. 



The Alaska or yellow cedar ( Chamaecyparis nootka- 

 tensis), which in Sargent's Silva is reported not farther 

 west than Yakutat Bay, appears to exist in a few isolated 

 localities on Prince William Sound. The stations were 

 not actually visited, but evidence of their existence was 

 found in the wood and bark used in buildings of an Aleut 

 village at the foot of Copper Mountain, and also in the 

 information furnished by traders that limited numbers of 

 this species are to be found on Hawkins Island, six or 

 seven miles from Orca, on Glacier Island, opposite Co- 

 lumbia Glacier, and in a few other confined localities. 

 This tree, although deriving its name from the country, is 

 really only sparingly represented in localized aggrega- 

 tions or clumps, occupying especially southern mountain 

 slopes from the shore to the very tops. It furnishes the 

 beautiful, fine-grained, yellow-tinted wood which the 

 Indians use for their carvings, totem poles, paddles, and 

 so on. The Oregon alder (Alnus oregona) was found 

 abundantly as far as the foot of La Perouse Glacier, a little 

 south of Mt. Fairweather, but was entirely absent at 

 Yakutat Bay and farther west. 



Excepting, then, the more or less sporadic occurrence 

 of species mentioned, the composition of the forest is 

 simple indeed, for the bulk is made up of a mixture of two 

 species, the tideland or Sitka spruce {Picea sitchensis) 

 and the coast hemlock {Tsuga heterophy //#), to which 

 may be added, near timber-line and farther west on the 

 lower levels, the interesting and beautiful Alpine hemlock 

 {Tsuga mertensiana). 



Numerically, the coast hemlock seems to be the most 



