+ 
T. A. Blake on the Northwest Coast of America. 245 
ing the coast and culminating in Mts. Fairweather and St. Elias, 
the heights of which are variously stated. The latter is in clear 
weather plainly visible ata distance of one hundred and fifty 
miles 
The rock in the vicinity of Sitka is a grit, sometimes coarse, 
often passing into argillite. The trend of this formation seems 
to be parallel to that of the coast. It xitnds as far south as 
the Deep sea, a remarkable fresh-water lake twelve miles south- 
west tr Sitka, on the opposite side of which syenitic granite 
occu 
iainistoies highly gg Fe is found within a few miles of 
the town on the north; The vegetation and general appear- 
ance of the bolas is very similar to that already described, 
though the beautiful Sitka spruce which is remarkable for its 
grace and the mathematical regularity with which its branches 
grow from the central stem, replaces the Douglass spruce of 
lower latitudes. Trees faa to large size, many from six to 
ten feet in diameter being see 
Of course but little is een of the geology of the country. 
It is only along the shores that the rocks can be investigated ;. 
the roughness of its surface, and thick growth of timber and 
masses of fallen and decaying trees, covered with deep moss, 
always saturated with water, almost ‘preclude geological obser- 
vation. I have yet to learn ‘of a man, white or Indian, crossing 
from one side of Sitka island to the other, a distance of not 
over twenty miles in some places 
The meteorological statistics kept for the Russian government 
show as a mean of twelve years’ observations, the mean annual 
temperature at Sitka to be 42° 9’ (Fahr.), the extremes ps | 
very small. The same observations give a mean annual rainfi 
of eighty-three and a inches, the maximum 
ne hundred and five in 
badens Chatham aig nik of Sitka island, the rocks are 
metamorphic, stratified mica schists, standing alm vertically, 
and showi ng a elism in their trend to the line of the 
ink ie straits, north of Sitka island, the ice from them falls 
into the sea, and so pent is the accumulation as to render nav- 
igetinas dangerous. In lat. 59° along Chatham straits, every 
fathd sdaypeosios hae g foci hei tee 
These glaciers are to be seen at semana the mquth — 
