54 University of California Publications in Zoology [^ol. 30 



Teslin Lake. We left Teslin on the return trip the morning of Septem- 

 ber 13, reaching Atlin September 15. The trail lies in the lowlands the 

 whole distance, passing through stretches of spruce, pine, and poplar 

 woods at intervals, with occasional tracts of open meadow and marsh 

 land. Rugged mountains enclose Surprise Lake, but beyond that point, 

 to the northeast, the mountains are left behind and rolling, forested 

 country stretches in all directions, save for isolated groups of peaks 

 such as the conspicuous Dawson Peaks (locally known as the Four 

 Aces) on the British Columbia- Yukon boundary at Lake Teslin. 



CAECEOSS 



This is the Caribou Crossing of former days, now a station on the 

 "White Pass and Yukon Railroad. It is situated at the junction of 

 Bennett and Tagish lakes, near the north base of White Pass, sixty- 

 eight miles inland from Skagway. Our limited work here was within 

 a radius of six or eight miles of the town, and entirely in the lowlands, 

 as the nearby mountains were inaccessible from the depth of soft, 

 melting snow with which they were then covered. The valley is clothed 

 with open woods, poplars and small jack pine mostly, interspersed 

 with stands of white spruce, and with willow copses in the more 

 swampy ground. A large slough (with wide margins of exposed mud 

 in May, filled with water in September) lies but a short distance from 

 the town, an attraction for water birds of many sorts. A striking 

 feature of this region is the vast expanse of shifting sand dune country. 

 The lower end of Lake Bennett is broadly margined with sand dunes, 

 and as far as we went in the woods to the northward we found similar 

 sandy mounds covered with fof est trees. It is a windy region ; during 

 our stay there were strong winds daily rushing inland through the 

 White Pass. (For a detailed discussion of the faunistic features of 

 the region, see Osgood, 1900, pp. 8-12.) 



ATLIN 



The town of Atlin is on the east shore of Lake Atlin, at an altitude 

 of 2200 feet. The valley bordering the east side of the lake is forest 

 covered mostly, but the woods are open and easily traversed. Quaking 

 aspen, or "poplar," is the dominant deciduous tree, and almost 

 unbroken stands of poplar cover miles of territory. White spruce grows 

 in many places in the lowlands, and in denser stands and over greater 

 areas on the adjoining mountain sides. The lowland woods are broken 



