The timber on the north shore of Graham Island, including Virago Sound, is generally light. From three to eight miles up the Naden River, however, we found considerable bodies of good spruce and red cedar. Its utilization would be attended with great expense, owing to the exceeding roughness of the country and the log jambs, shoals and rapids of the river. Massett Inlet and Harbor contains a much larger quantity of available spruce and red cedar, the best tracts of which were found on the east side of the inlet opposite Cub Island, along the banks of the Ain, Awun, Ma-min and Yakoun Rivers, and on the inlets previously described. The largest quantity of yellow cedar seen was on Soos-u-uns Lake, which is believed to be too small to warrant the expenditure necessary to obtain it.
FISH. Hallibut, herring, salmon, salmon trout, and dog fish are caught in unlimited quantities in the waters described, also black cod or skill, all along the west coast of the islands.
MINERALS.—No minerals except coal are known to exist in the country herein described, of which no veins hitherto undiscovered have been found.
FUR-BEARING ANIMALS, especially bear, land otter and martin are very numerous. Since the abandonment of the west coast by the Indians for permanent residence, being but little trapped and hunted, they have increased rapidly. We found large numbers of old bear and martin traps along the streams and on the coast in the neighborhood of their old villages. Fur seal are killed in considerable numbers, and a few sea otter, from fifteen to twenty each season.
WATER FOWL.—Wild geese were very numerous in Massett Inlet, Naden Harbor, and the southern inlets of the west coast. Comparatively few ducks, however, were seen.
WATER.—Nearly all the streams from Athlow River, northward, and also those of North Island, Virago Sound and Massett Inlet to the head of its South-western arms are of a dark reddish color.
THE CLIMATE of the west coast is exceedingly variable—stormy, squally weather prevailing during the greater portion of the year, the rainfall ranging from sixty to seventy inches. The Virago Sound and Massett Inlet country lying to the east of of the mountains possesses a much more equable and desirable climate, the annual rainfall seldom exceeding forty-five inches, except at the heads of the inlets.
Very Respectfully
Your obedient servant,