20 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XIV 
canal, like most of the west coast, are rocky and abrupt; at only a few spots along 
its length are there limited areas of level and fairly open land, in every case occupied 
by Indian cabins, which were securely closed at this season, for their owners use 
them but a small portion of the year. “Tashees” is de.scribed by Jewitt as the 
winter home of the Indians, occupied from September until February. Our camp 
was quite at the head of the canal, in a cabin at an abandoned marble quarry . 
Three fairly large streams empty here, and there are rather extensive areas of 
meadow land. These meadows, though fair to the view, are very deceptive, and 
anything but easy to traverse, the grass waist high, or even shoulder high, and con- 
cealing innumerable logs, stumps, and masses of windfall, while the ground is 
everj^where intersected by a network of little ditches, also concealed. Some Indian 
cabins placed here are nearly hidden by the surrounding mass of nettles, elder, and 
salmonberry bushes. 
The forests of the west coast must be seen to be appreciated. I had seen, as I 
supposed, densely forested regions in the eastern and central portions of Vancouver 
Island, and had also heard tales of w'est coast conditions, but these had not prepared 
me altogether for the jungle we entered. Everywhere, over hill and valley, is the 
dense impenetrable forest, Douglas fir and spruce, mostly, a tree wherever there is 
a po.ssible foothold for one, and underneath a matted tangle quite impenetrable ex- 
cept along the water courses. Devils club and salmonberry bushes reach out long 
thorny branches in all directions, while everywhere is the bush we heard so abound- 
ingly vilified by woodsmen and hunters — the ubiquitous salal. On the east side of 
the island the latter occurs mainly as a small, rather innocuous shrub, easily trodden 
under foot, but it thrives on the west coast, forming thickets higher than a man’s 
head, and as absolute a barrier as a stone wall. Altogether the forests appeared to 
me to be somewhat more tangled and impassable than the worst I had seen in south- 
eastern Alaska — more uniformly dense and without the welcome relief of the open 
“park” country so characteristic of some of the Alaska islands. 
At one time there was a trail from the head of the Tahsis Canal across the island 
to Alert Bay, on the east coast, but w^e were unable to find any trace of it. The 
trapper we found encamped here was unaware of its existence, though he had 
blazed a trail for some miles over what was probably the same route, following up 
one of the streams. 
The naturalist’s interest in Nootka Sound is due to the fact that the earliest 
explorers secured here numerous specimens of animals and plants new to the scien- 
tists of the period, and hence serving as types of the several species. The birds 
known to have been first described from this spot are the Rufous Hummingbird, 
Red-brea.sted Sapsncker, Blue-fronted Jay, and Varied Thrush, and it was partly 
the search for “topotypes”, always interesting but frequently elusive and exasper- 
ating, that brought me to Nootka. 
Our collecting ground at Friendly Cove was of about as varied a nature as could 
be found in a similar area anywhere in the region. The trail between our cabin 
and the village passed the whole distance through the woods, while from the rear 
of the store another trail, a short cut through the forest, led to the outer beach, 
which could also be reached in a more roundabout way by passing through the 
village. The outer beach, the lake already referred to, and occasionally the more 
distant lagoon, were abundant ground to cover in a morning, and were about the 
best places for birds. We secured three of the four especial desiderata. The sap- 
sucker we did not see, though here and there I ran across the handiwork of the 
species on the trees. Hummingbirds were not common, though some were seen 
every day; the adult males had already departed for the south, but specimens of 
