12 



the mouth of the Bulkley, a distance of 154 miles (247.8km), 

 but its navigation, except near the mouth, is difficult and 

 dangerous. 



The valley of the Skeena, where it cuts the Coast 

 range, is a deep, steep-sided trough, precisely similar to the 

 fiord-like depressions filled with salt water so prevalent 

 along the coast. It has however, been gradually silted up 

 by the river down to about Mile post 40, and is bottomed 

 with alluvial flats and islands. Above the mouth of the 

 Kitsumgallum its character changes. The valley above 

 this, at the end of the Glacial period was floored for some 

 distance by estuarine, and farther up by glacial deposits, 

 and in place of depositing its load the river is scouring 

 out, and along most of its course is sunk in a secondary 

 valley. 



The secondary valley is mostly in drift, but along 

 considerable stretches it cuts through these loose deposits 

 down into the bed rock beneath, and contracts into a can- 

 yon. The rock walled portions are due, in part at least, 

 to deviations of the stream from the lowest portions of its 

 pre-glacial channel. Some of them may owe their origin 

 to small post-glacial uplifts. 



The Skeena valley, east of the semi-crystalline rocks 

 which border the Coast Range batholith on that side, enters 

 a more easily eroded region where it gradually expands in 

 width, and the bordering slopes become much less regular. 



The Bulkley river, which is followed after leaving the 

 Skeena, is a wild unnavigable stream plunging over 

 rapids or crowding through canyons along its whole course. 

 The enclosing valley is very large, its width ranging from 

 four (6.4 km.) to nearly ten miles (16 km.). It is bordered 

 on the southwest, from the Skeena to Moricetown, by the 

 high rugged Rochers Deboules mountains, and from 

 Moricetown to the Telkwa by the almost equally rough 

 Hudson Bay mountains. On the northeast the bounding 

 elevations are low and more even, seldom breaking into 

 prominent peaks. 



The valley is heavily drift covered, and a cross section 

 usually shows a central terraced portion, bordered by un- 

 even slopes, leading up to the bounding ridges and mount- 

 ains. The river is sunk in a secondary, and for long reaches, 

 rock-walled valley from Hazelton to Telkwa. 



The grade of the Skeena from Essington, where the 

 current practically ceases, to Hazelton, a distance of 154 



