244 TT. A. Blake on the Northwest Coast of: America. 
sources I learn that the beds are much faulted, involving gr 
expense in their exploration, and that they stand at a high pe 
gle. The shipments from these mines have been constantly 
mereasing, and have probably reached a total amount of over 
two hundred thousand tons, The coal is probably of the same 
geological age as that of the Mt. Diablo mines, and is very 
similar to it in chemical composition, as shown by the compar- 
ative statement of analyses given by our state goulogiosd in his 
cr oe A (ist vol. geology). The difference, pedo is in favor 
Diablo coal, that containing a maller percentage 
of ash, tboneb more water; ; why the batter is not as well suited 
r ocean steamers, in the absence of vip - the Nanaime 
which is so extensively used, I do not unders 
The shores of Vancouver, ‘and the smaller aaa with which 
the inland waters to the east are studded, are lined with recent 
deposits, soft and friable, mad horizontally stratified and 
rarely over fifty feet above the wate 
The most important river of British Columbia is the Fra- 
zer, which flows into the gulf of Georgia just north of the forty- 
ninth parallel, or the northern boundary of Washington terri- 
The outlying islands afford an admirable barrier against the 
encroachments: of the sea upon its comparatively broad, alluvial 
Above this river is a series of long and narrow inlets, often 
stretching inland for from forty to cog A miles, from one to two 
miles only in width, and walled with high and abrupt moun- 
tains, ane wooded with HP: trees to an elevation, 
half ais uid Bees-of- this a where no paemeiogs were saad 
at three hundred fathom 
mown" ies indeed like sailing through a succession of 
Yo Semite 
- ‘Sitka Island, in our new territory, is a mass of unexplored rug- 
i mountains, many of which are capped with perpetual snow. 
e town is situated at the wie of Sitka bay, the entrance to 
which is marked by t the symmetrical volcanic cone of Edge- 
combe, which is the second of a series of volcanic peaks border- 
