18 B 



GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



Timber. 



Inxuriant 



vegetation. 



Islands. 



Harriet Ha 

 bour. 



the inlet the mountains rise steepl} T to a height of 3000 feet or more, 

 being the highest yet met with in proceeding northward. The surface 

 of the country is forest-clad, but as before noticed many of the trees 

 are dead at the tops. When sheltered flat land occurs, however, they 

 are well grown and healthy looking. The Spruce (Abies Menziesii), 

 Hemlock (Abies Mertensiand) and Cedar (Thuja gigantea) are the most 

 abundant, the latter chiefly near the shore. Alders (Alnus Oregona) 

 and Crab-apples (Pi/ras rivularis) form small groves near the beach 

 where the land is low. In the narrower passages where no heavy seas 

 can enter, the trees seem almost to root in the beach, and their branches 

 hang down so as even to dip into the water at high tide. Where a 

 narrow beach occurs in these sheltered localities, vividly green grass 

 spreads down till it meets the yellow tangle which grows up as far as 

 the tide ever reaches. Owing to the dampness of the climate, a few 

 days exposure at neap tides does not seem to injure the sea-weed. Ferns 

 also grow abundantly on the trunks and even on the boughs of the trees, 

 both living and dead, and green moss forms great club-like masses on 

 projecting branches. Large trunks, overthrown and dead, become at 

 once perfect gardens of moss young trees and bushes, though lying 

 high above the ground supported on piles of yet earlier windfall. 

 Similar features characterize the forest bordering the shores elsewhere 

 throughout the whole southern portion of the Queen Charlotte Islands, 

 and — it is unnecessary to add — render locomotion in any other way 

 than by boats or cauoes along the shore nearly impossible. 



The entrance to Skincuttle Inlet is south of a chain of islands which 

 may be called the Copper Islands, and lie east-north-east and west-south- 

 west. It is a mile and a half wide, but should be used with caution, as 

 there is reason to believe that a rock, sometimes bare, lies in it. The 

 passage to the north of the Copper Islands is contracted, and with one 

 or more rocks in its narrowest part. The first opening on the south 

 side of the inlet, and best anchorage, is Harriet Harbour of Poole, of 

 which a careful survey, with soundings, has been made. It is two 

 miles east of the south entrance point of Skincuttle Inlet, and runs 

 southward one mile. It should be entered by the channel on the west 

 side of Harriet Island, which lies at its mouth. A vessel should be 

 kept nearer the west side of the channel, (as several little rocks covered 

 at high water lie along Harriet Island) and run some distance beyond 

 the inner end of the island before bringing too, to avoid the shoal bank 

 which lies off its point. The depth is about 8 fathoms, with good 

 holding ground, and the harbour is well sheltered from most directions, 

 though subject to heavy puff's from the valleys at its head when a 

 southerly gale is blowing. 



A mile and a half west of Harriet Harbour is Huston Bay of Poole 



