214 1^^^^ American Naturalist. [April, 
The fiord in which the "Angel Dolly" rides at anchor is 
well protected from the prevalent gales, and the water, al- 
though deep, is easily sounded by our anchor. We anchored 
near the shore, not far from the beach, at the end of the 
caiion. After all had been made snug aboard, we rowed 
to the shore, and took a stroll up the canon, following the 
bed of the brook. The canon is well wooded with many kinds 
of trees, and with ferns and mosses, with here and there, wild 
flowers. As we landed on the shore we started up two small, 
wild foxes, Urocyon littoralis, so abundant on the island, and 
came within easy gunshot of them. 
On each side of the canon the cliffs rise precipitantly, 
almost perpendicularly, so that it is impossible to climb them, 
and it is with great difficulty that we made our way along 
their base. Many large boulders lie strewn along the bed of 
the stream, and there are many deep basins of pure, fresh 
water, fed by the sparkling mountain stream from the canon. 
In one or two places the bed of the stream is dry, the water 
having made a channel for itself through passages under the 
rock or soil. At certain places these dry sections of the bed 
of the stream are coated with a white deposit. There were 
many cottonwood trees as far up the canon as we were able 
to penetrate. Near the beach we noticed the remains of an 
old camp-fire, and the skins of two sheep, which told the 
story of a former camping party, probably of fishermen, visit- 
ors to this lonely and picturesque place. There are also 
many abalone shells {Haliotis), the animals of which had 
also, no doubt formed part of the meal of these visitors. 
The level deposit of soil at the mouth of the canon must 
have been a favorite camping place for the Indians who once 
lived in great numbers on this and neighboring islands, for on 
the side hill there is a high shell heap where they had thrown 
the debrisof their camp. This shell heap was formed in great 
part of the shells of a large Balanus, Haliotis, and Mussels. 
On the sides of the rocks above it many Indian inscriptions 
were cut in the hard rocks of the conglomerate. These in- 
scriptions were made with some care and consist of parallel 
grooves in the rock across which, at right angles, were other 
grooves all of undoubted Indian origin. We returned to the 
