1902. 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



67 



Allen reports that his camp on the 

 Tozikakat River, "was in a grove of 

 larger timber than any seen since leav- 

 ing the Yukon ; " one tree was nearly 

 two feet in diameter, and at another 

 place he mentions specially the possi- 

 bility of bridging a river of forty feet in 

 width by the felling of a spruce tree. 



In Norton Bay, within 

 a quarter of a mile from 

 the sea, there are dense 

 groves of spruce, but the 

 height of the trees never 

 exceeds forty feet and 

 the diameter from six to 

 ten inches ; and along the 

 Tavana River Lieut. Al- 

 len reports that most of 

 the spruce ranges from 

 three to eight inches in 

 diameter ; onl}' here and 

 there better development 

 is reported. 



While, therefore, con- 

 sidering the vast territory 

 under discussion, there 

 is even in these scattered 

 groves a large amount of 

 wood, in the aggregate it 

 would be, indeed, a poor 

 outlook if we were forced 

 to contemplate the use of 

 it for " suppl^'ing our 

 country for half a cen- 

 tury in case our other 

 supplies become ex- 

 hausted." 



The open and stunted 

 character of the tree 

 growth, the trees mostly 

 short, the timber knotted 

 and checked by frost, 

 with only occasionally 

 better developed, because 

 protected, groves, is what 

 we would expect in a cli- 

 mate and soil like those 

 of interior Alaska. 



It is a dry climate, for, while blessed 

 with an abundant snowfall (8 to 15 

 feet) , the countr}- suffers from droughty 

 summers (rainfall, about 13 inches) 

 and icy winters. 



In summer the temperature is said 

 sometimes to exceed 112 F. in the 

 shade, while in winter it has been known 



to 



fall 



to 60 and lower, a range of 

 170". On the northern and western 

 coast there are experienced " blighting, 

 ice-laden Siberian storms, which, though 

 not so low in temperature as the interior 

 blizzards, are yet b\- far more dangerous, 

 on account of their humidit>', to animal 

 and vegetable life." Any student of 



SCENE AI.ONG INDIAN RIVER, ALASKA, SHOWING SPRUCE TIMBER. 



tree life will know what to expect when 

 it is added that " the entire face of the 

 country is covered with a heavy growth 

 of moss and lichens nearly as thoroughly 

 saturated as a wet sponge, which re- 

 mains soggy and cold until late in smn- 

 mer; and even on slopes the water drains 

 off but slowly, while a few inches below 

 this cover is a bed of rock, ice, or frozen 



