1924] Swarth: Birds and Mcrnimals of the Skeena Biver Region 317 



plateau slopes gently upward toward the several nearby mountain 

 ranges. The most conspicuous of these, the towering, rocky peaks of 

 the Rocher Deboule, ten or twelve miles to the southeast, rise pre- 

 cipitously to elevations of more than 8000 feet. 



In the bottom lands poplar (Populus tremuloides) is the dominant 

 forest growth, covering many square miles in almost pure stands of 

 dense woods. Along the river there are rows of large cottonwoods, 

 and on the ridges thickets of hazel, the abundance of which probably 

 gave the town its name. 



The higher slopes and plateaus, above the river bottoms, were once 

 thickly covered with Engelmann spruce {Picea engelmcmni) , but these 

 areas, at least toward the southeast, have suffered repeatedly from 

 forest fires, so that but remnants of the woods remain standing. The 

 ground beneath is strewn with charred trunks, hidden during the 

 summer months by fire weed and bracken; and partly burned trees 

 remain erect at scattered intervals. The plateau region is drained by 

 numerous small streams, bordered with thickets of wiUow and alder. 

 At rather frequent intervals there are muskegs, usually unaffected 

 by fire, and affording contrast in several respects to their more 

 monotonous surroundings. 



These muskegs, often roughly circular in shape, are of varying 

 size, marshy, with deep, sticky mtid, or sometimes a few inches of 

 water, and with mud and water usually concealed by grass. Scattered 

 over them are a few funereal black spruces (Picea mariana) , festooned 

 with streamers of black moss. The bordering forest of Engelmann 

 spruce usually forms a ring of denser growth than elsewhere about 

 the margin of the muskeg, where, with the spruce, are mingled a few 

 red cedars {Thuja plicata). 



Toward the base of Rocher Deboule, there are places where red 

 cedar grows in some abundance. Mostly these trees had been cut out 

 years before, but some groves remain, and in these clumps of cedars 

 and in the muskegs species of birds are breeding that are not seen 

 elsewhere at the same altitude. 



Our camp in this region was on the opposite side of the Bulkley 

 River from Hazelton, on what is locally known as Mission Point. 

 Mammal trapping was carried on in the bottom lands between the 

 Bulkley River and the railroad. 



