Page:Condor14(1).djvu/20

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 [airly 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 described by Jewitt as the winter home of the Indians, o?cupied 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 gronnd is everywhere 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 west 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 possible 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 Tabsis Canal across the island to Alert Bay, on the east coast, but we 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-breasted Sapsucker, 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. Onr 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