1910] Heller—Mammals: Alaska Expedition, 1908. 333 
abandoned houses were found. These were at one time the 
quarters of a fox rancher who stocked the island with black 
foxes. About the houses where the forest had been cleared 
erew a heavy growth of salmonberry bushes, devil’s-club, cur- 
rants, western skunk cabbage, and other shrubby plants. 
KNIGHT ISLAND. 
Knight Island is the most rugged and deeply indented island 
in the Sound. It is apparently the extreme crest of a sunken 
mountain range. The rock formation is more uniform and the 
strata are much heavier than usual in the Sound. The rocks 
are chiefly graywacke and blackish sandstone. Permanent beds 
of snow oceur as low as 1000 feet on the northern slopes, but 
they are usually small in extent. The southern exposures and 
the southern and northern ends of the island are well timbered. 
The region about Drier Bay, however, is very thinly forested, 
the trees being confined to a narrow margin along the shore 
line. Most of this forest is Tsuga mertensiana. Alder thickets 
cover extensive areas about the hillsides bordering the bay. 
Above timber-line the rocks and soil are closely carpeted by the 
small heather, Harrimanella. This plant is also conspicuous as 
a covering for the boulders seattered through the forest. 
CHENEGA ISLAND. 
The central portion of Chenega Island is formed by a 
rounded, gently sloping ridge which attains a height of about 
1600 feet near the southern end of the island. The topography 
lacks the ruggedness so prevalent in the Sound. The rock for- 
mation is chiefly a blackish sandstone which is much less con- 
torted than the strata of Knight Island. The island is very 
uniformly forested from sea-level to the summits of the highest 
ridges. No permanent snow fields occur, nor is there any ap- 
parent timber-line to be seen on the southern and eastern slopes. 
Open tundra was seen only near the southeastern point of the 
island. The mountain hemlock is the predominating tree. For- 
ests of Sitka spruce occur on the more level parts of the island 
and on the slopes near the sea. Seattered everywhere along 
