16 ANCIENT WARRIORS

way. Massett, the principal port at the Northern end of
Graham Island, is about 80 miles from Prince Rupert,
and is in the direct line for all ships sailing Westward
from that Pacific rail terminus.

Generally the islands are not of any great elevation,
although parts of Graham Island reach an altitude of
4,000 feet, and there is a small plateau of about the
same height at the North end of Moresby Island. The
coast is much indented and gives one the impression of
a subsidence ot a dissected land form.

For six hundred miles along the British Columbian
coast North of Vancouver the shores on both sides of the
land-locked steamship course are invariably steep and
densely clothed with forests. Instead of shores rising
abruptly out of the water and attaining heights of one
to three thousand feet within a mile or less, Graham
Island offers a remarkable contrast with its great area
of level or gently sloping land. The coast-line has a
white, sandy beach, and inland some 400,000 acres of
land can be made suitable for agricultural purposes.
This land, however, requires to be drained or cleared
before the settler can hope to farm on a remunerative
basis. When once cleared it will yield heavy crops as
the soil in most places is composed of leaf mould with
a gravelly or clayey subsoil.

On the North and East coasts as the steamer
approaches Massett, with the exception of Tou Hill (a
cliff composed of columnar volcanic rocks which rises
abruptly to a height of 200 feet) there is not a mountain
or hill visible, but far away the peaks of the West coast
range of mountains rising to a height of 4,000 feet are
visible, and a few of the highest peaks on Graham and
Moresby Islands are covered with snow all the year
round.

From Chouan Point, four miles from Massett, to