1922] Swarth:. Birds and Mammals of the Stikine Region 143 



equalling if not exceeding that of the coast which reaches a mean of eighty-six 

 inches. The snowfall thereabouts is excessive, and aoeouuta for the extensive 

 glaciers that fill the valleys ; and long after spring has opened in the colder interior 



the lower river flats are covered with their burden of snow and ice Forests 



of spruce, fir, cedar and hemlock cover the mountain slopes to the limit of tree 

 growth, while in the river valleys cottonwoods grow to considerable size, and 

 groves of alder and willow, with the devil 's club and berry bushes, form an almost 



impenetrable barrier It may be pertinent to remark here, that this region 



which may bo characterized as the wet belt has never been inhabited by either 

 Tahltan or Tlingit in the sense that they have permanently occupied it and it is 

 scarcely more popular as a hunting ground owing to its poverty and inaeceseibility. 



At the mouth of the river and in the channel beyond there are 

 numerous small rocky islands. Surrounding these centers there are 

 miles of meadow, marsh land, and mud flats, resulting from the deposi- 

 tion of silt by the river. During the period of high water in mid- 

 summer the stream is gray and opaque with silt carried in suspension, 

 and this silt has been dropped in the channels immediately beyond the 

 river's mouth until they are well-nigh filled. 



A conspicuous forest tree of the lower Stikine is the cottonwood. 

 This tree covers all the low ground near the water, grows densely and 

 to a large size. It finds a foothold on sand bars and aids in the building 

 up of such areas into more stable bottom land. Consequently, there 

 are hundreds of acres of cottonwood in almost pure stands but slightly 

 above the level of the river or even submerged at the highest water. 

 East of the Coast Range, cottonwood is much less conspicuous than 

 along the lower river, though still persisting in considerable numbers. 



In the country in general at the mouth of the Stikine, the Sitka 

 spruce is the dominant tree. This tree, with other associated conifers, 

 extends some distance up stream, forming an evergreen forest that 

 covers all but the unstable bottom land where the quick-growing 

 cottonwoods occur. Where rocky slopes rise abruptly from the river's 

 bank, the conifers range down to the water's edge. The higher ground 

 back from the first bottom is covered densely with woods of spruce 

 and hemlock, and with undergrowth of devil 's-club, alder, and huckle- 

 berry. Such woods extend with but slight breaks to a point a little 

 above the Little Canon. Farther inland the spruce woods ascend higher 

 and higher on the mountain sides, until at Doch-da-on Creek the lower 

 limit of this belt lies at an altitude of about 2000 feet. Somewhere 

 below Doch-da-on Creek the Sitka spruce of the coast gives way to 

 other conifers of the interior, but just where this happens we did not 

 ascertain. On the upper Stikine, poplar becomes the dominant growth 

 of the valley, mixed, here and there, with groves of conifers or of 

 cottonwood. 



