The daily intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Territory [i.e. Wash.]) 1876-1881, 1879-11-16

about latitude Sc degrees. From tho
soft. easily worked boles OF this trse
the Indians make their fine canoes, some
OF them large enough to carry Fifty or
sixty men. A specimen nibbed out Of
single log cut on the west coast of
Vancouver Island is sixty feet long.
eight feet wide. and four feet deep.
PINES AND CorroNwooDs.
OF pines have seen only one species
few trees of which. fifty or sixty feet
higl. may occasionally be found
about the open edges of lakes and bogs.
In the interior, beyond the mountains.
it fJIrs extensive forests Cotton
woods. two or three feet thick. and
from forty to sixty feet high, grow on
beds Of food soil along the banks Of
lager streams.
FIRS-EARDWOOD.
4 fir is common on the mountain
slopes IF the nainland. Ii is usually
quite small. however, seldom found TO
exceed u hight of GO OF 20 feet, and the
timber is Of very inferior quslity. And
up Oh the cold canyon SIDES along the
the tanks Of the glaciers. there 10 very
handsome li;,lo spruce like the Viii
hanson of the upper forests Of the ST.
ezra. The only hard wood l have seen
in Alaska is alder, maple. wild apple
and birch hone species Of each. The
birca grows mostly on steep deciivities
well back 10 the Coast Range in CON-
pany with spruce aud fir The largest
n ta. nj, ,,1
foot ,hi'k The other species are
found only all ut the margins II the
main f".es.s The trees are quite small,
mostly about eight or ulne inches in di.
ameter or less.
EXTENT AND VALUE OF ALASKAN FOR
1t appears. therefore. that, with the
important exception of the yellow cedar,
timber trees. for every use. as good or
better in quality abound in Califor orniS.
Oregon. Washington Territory and
British Cslumbis. while those SOURCES
Of supply are also nearer the markets
of the world Aud il will only be sitter
those are .xi..usiad ou the more acces
sibc portions Of the coast that these
grand Alaska forests will to any Con-
siderable extent he made available.
Seward expected Alaska to become the
shinyar1 Of the world. Iu the msan-
time the supply will keep Thes Alas
ka forests ara not threatened by fire or
any other destruction dependent on the
agency of man They are too wet to
burn. l have not yet seen q trace OF
fire in all these woods. The roots are
set in deep spOngc of wet moses.
kept saturated by the abundant rains
that fall throughout all the seasons, SO
that running fires are impossible here
while tn. climate remains as it IS. Be-
yond the tains, in the interior for
est-, the conditions are different less
rain and gTea'cr summer heat-so that
these woods are cftcrtimes scourged
with fires as destructive as those that
sweep the forest belt of the Sierra. In
the vast region drained by the Yukon.
the principal tree. according to Kellogg
s. Dali. is the white spruce. l saw it
Oh the Arctic divide, near the head.
waters of the Yukon. 1t is an ex.
ceedingly slender tree. spiry. erect and
closely clad with short, leafy sprays.
forming the sharpcst aud most arrow.
like spires ever saw in any forest.
The tallest are about 1926 feet high.
Some of this inland timber may some
time be made available for ship spars
by floating it down to tide water; but
centuries Will probably elapse before
this time of need will cCma