288 Our North Land. 



Fort Tongus on the right. There are no obstructions, and nothing 

 to interfere with navigation whatever. 



The physical features of the coast in this neighbourhood are 

 full of interest. Professor Dawson, who has made a geological 

 examination of this section, says : — " The Coast or Cascade Range 

 of British Columbia is that forming the high western border of the 

 continent, but beyond it lies another half-submerged range, which 

 appears in Vancouver and the Queen Charlotte Isjands, and is 

 represented in the south by the Olympian Mountains of Washington 

 Territory, and northward by the large islands of the coast archi- 

 pelago of Alaska. In this outer range there are three remarkable 

 gaps, the most southern occupied by the Strait of Fuca, the central 

 being the wide opening between Vancouver and the Queen Char- 

 lotte Islands, and the northern Dixon's Entrance. To the south of 

 these, the lower part of the valley of the Columbia appears to 

 occupy a similar depression, through which, and by Puget Sound, a 

 moderate subsidence of the land would enable the sea to flow, 

 forming of the Olympian Mountain region an additional large 

 island. Whatever the ultimate origin of the gaps holding the Strait 

 of Fuca and Dixon's Entrance, they are features of great structural 

 importance, and are continued eastward in both cases by depressions 

 more or less marked in the coast range proper." 



These observations are borne out by the fact that the Fraser 

 River, carrying the greater part of the drainage between the coast 

 range and the Rockies, after flowing southward for several hundred 

 miles, reaches the sea opposite the end of the Strait of Fuca; while 

 the Skeena, the river we shall ascend, whose tributaries interlock 

 with those of the Fraser, and derive their waters from the same 

 great plateau, falls into the Pacific near the head of Dixon's Entrance 

 We have but little to do with the Fraser, however, as our route 

 leads us to its head-waters only. The Skeena, to which we desire 

 to direct attention more especially, falls into the ocean near the 

 head of Dixon's Inlet, not far south of Port Simpson. The tribu- 

 taries of this stream interlock, as I have said, with those of the 

 Fraser. It is a wonderful volume of water, not so much for its 

 greatness as for the beauty of its scenery, and the magnificent 



