SOUTH-COAST DISTRICT (A) 



The southern border of Alaska consists of a ragged strip of coast 

 indented by deep, fiord-like bays and by narrow channels that so 

 intersect as to cut off hundreds of islands. At varying distances, 

 but never far from the ocean, stand lofty mountains capped with 

 snow-fields and glaciers, protecting the coastal valleys and islands 

 from the cold north and northeast winds. The Coast Range continues 

 northward from British Columbia as far as Icy Strait and Lynn 

 Canal, beyond which the massive uplift of the St. Elias Alps presents 



Sketch -Map of Alaska, Showing Areas of Faunal Districts (see page 8), 

 and the Situations of Federal Bird Reservations (see page 72) 



hardly more than ice-clififs to the sea until the mouth of Copper River 

 is reached. Thence westward a marginal coast of considerable width, 

 cut by many rivers and inlets, fringed with peninsulas and islands, 

 and walled by mountains, extends to the base of the Alaska Peninsula. 

 This long coastal belt receives from the prevailing westerly 

 winds the warmth and moisture of the Pacific Ocean, shed upon it 

 copiously by the chilling efifect of the mountains, against which the 

 clouds incessantly drift. Hence all this district, except the glacial 



