South of the Hoya-kund-la River, and near the seashore, there is about 250 acres of grazing land, interspersed with groves of small spruce. From the mouth of Tlell River, south and westward, there is a considerable body of grazing land, estimated at two thousand acres. It produces, besides the usual coarse sand grasses, a nutritious wild pea vine.
THE SOIL
Is uniformly sandy and of too recent formation to be much enriched by decomposition. It varies but little in quality, there being no alluvial deposits, owing to the flat character of the eastern portion of the island. There is no sub-soil, except in a few localities, sand and gravel extending down to the rock layers. As far as I penetrated the interior, the roots of the fallen trees exposed only sand, sea-washed stones and shells. Clay was observed at one or two points, for a short distance between Hoya-kund-la and Tlell Rivers, also a formation resembling peat.
TIMBER LANDS.
A forest of spruce, hemlock, cedar and cypress covers probably nine-tenths of the surface of the island. While in the aggregate, it embraces large quantities of merchantable timber, a comparatively small portion is available for lumbering operations. This is due to the scattering growth of the best trees, and also to their location upon streams either too small to float logs or blockaded by fallen trees. I am speaking, of course, only of that section of the island so far examined. There are very fine specimens of spruce and cedar upon all the streams mentioned flowing into Massett inlet. Spruce is much the most common, and is found in bodies of sufficient extent to warrant its manufacture into lumber on the shores of Canoe Passage, Grouse, Nedo and Watoon creeks. Some of the trees seen were from five to seven feet in diameter and of great height.
The cedar was found chiefly on the banks of the streams and borders of marshes and swamps. In following up the rivers and creeks, especially those flowing into Massett Inlet, I almost invariably found Indian trails, evidently made for getting out canoe logs, and poles for carving their tribal and family emblems. These trails, upon which considerable labor had been expended at the crossing of ravines and marshy places, extended only a short distance, seldom exceeding two miles, branching off here and there to the base of great cedars from which they had selected a choice section, and rough-hewn before dragging out.
The surface of the timber lands was generally covered from five to ten feet in depth with fallen trees, in all stages of decay, moss-grown, and half concealed by a thick growth of salal and salmonberry bushes. All of the streams which I followed up to their source, led into almost impassable swamps, through which progress at the rate of a mile an hour was difficult. Along the north and east shores of Graham Island, I saw but little timber of sufficient size and in bodies large enough to warrant the erection of a saw mill. The smallness and obstruction of the streams and the absence of harbors, renders its profitable utilization difficult. There is but little of the yellow cedar or cypress growing in the forest now described.
Scattering trees were seen at various points, especially along Massett Inlet, but no valuable tracts of it were found. It grows more upon the higher lands at the eastern base of the mountains on the western portion of the island. Besides the forest trees mentioned, there are occasional small bodies of alder, yew and crabapple trees seen, the latter bearing considerable fruit.
Of plants, the strawberry grows everywhere upon the open lands, producing small fruit of fine quality in moderate abundance.