1912] Swarth: Birds and Mammals from Vancouver Island 11 



impassable. The forest growth is dense, but there is compara- 

 tively little underbrush, so the woods are fairly easy to traverse. 

 Scattered along the north shore of the lake I noticed several 

 madrorias at different points, the only place on the west side of 

 the island where we saw this tree; there are none around Alberni, 

 none nearer than the east end of Cameron Lake. We were at 

 Great Central Lake from August 17 to 26. 



DELLA LAKE 



In the high mountains, some twelve or fifteen miles north- 

 west of the upper end of Great Central Lake. From our camp 

 at the latter point we made a short trip here in search of 

 ptarmigan, the country being so rough that we were unable to 

 transport enough camp equipage to enable us to remain more 

 than a day or two; in fact it is a sufficiently hard trip without 

 any load. Most of the way the trail leads through thick woods, 

 over rolling country, gradually ascending, but with no very steep 

 grades. There are a number of streams to be crossed over very 

 precarious bridges, some of them at dizzy heights above the 

 water. One of these, composed of two fir trees felled across a 

 narrow gorge, with split slabs laid across about three feet apart, 

 spanned a waterfall, dropping below a sheer seventy or eighty 

 feet ; and the roar of the water, together with the trembling 

 of the rickety structure formed a combination that would be 

 decidedly unnerving to a person inclined to be dizzy. The hard 

 climb came at the farther end of the trail, which led to the base 

 of a towering rocky cliff, over which a stream tumbled in a 

 series of tremendous falls. A fragment of rotten rope dangling 

 from a ledge at one side showed where the "trail" ascended, 

 and the climb (of about 2000 feet) was a series of scrambles up 

 the face of the cliff, with the occasional aid of ropes or leaning 

 trees, and with short intervals of rocky slides where walking 

 was possible. Our dog was unable to follow, and remained at 

 the foot of the trail. Arrived on top we found ourselves in a 

 rocky, bowl-shaped valley, nearly filled by the lake whose waters 

 cascaded over the cliff we had ascended, while on every other 

 side snow-covered mountains rose precipitously, some scrubby 

 timber on their heather-covered lower slopes, but the summits 



