Vegetation.

Salmon River
Fall.

Tltasyouco
River.

Appearance of
coast plants.

28 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA.

considerably in advance of any seen lately. <Aguilegia Canadensis and
Cornus Canadensis were in full flower on June 25rd, while the lupin
(Lupinus Nootkatensis) also appeared for the first time, and Zhalictrum
dioicum and Smilacina stellata were common on grassy banks.

Further down the Salmon River, with continued evidence of greater
rain-fall, the forest is found unburnt, and consisting in great part of the
scrub pine in tall dark groves. One or two small patches of snow were
observed in the densely shady parts of the woods. <A corresponding
change takes place in the undergrowth, Lycopodium complanatum becom-

ing abundant, while the beautiful Calypso borealis covers large patches of

the mossy soil, and Viola sarmentosa and Pachystima myrsinites appear.
About six miles above the mouth of the Itasyouco River (known to the
Indians as the Pun-chi-as-ko), the Salmon River makes its first great
leap, in a fall about eighty feet in height, descending by several steps. The
water does not pause at the foot of the fall, but continues onward as a
foaming rapid as far as it can be seen, and here leaving the general level
of the plateau enters its cafion, and in a distance of forty-five miles
reaches the sea after accomplishing a descent of nearly 3,000 feet. The
Iltasyouco River falling into the Salmon River from the north, is about
seven miles in length between its exit from Si-gut-lat or Tse-houts Lake,
and junction with the Salmon River. The bluish colour of its water
contrasts with the amber tint of the Salmon River. In June it appeared
to carry from one-half to two-thirds as much water as the latter. The
river valley is at least 300 feet below the average elevation of the
country, and is trough-shaped, with a wide rounded bottom. There
are low terraces at several levels near the stream, and one,—best
marked near Si-gut-lat Lake—at an elevation of about 200 feet above
it, consisting of rolled gravel and sand. The river itself, though

often bounded on one side or other by steep banks, can never be said
to flow through a cafion. A mile above its mouth, it forms a very
picturesque waterfall, over rocks of the mesozoic volcanic series, which
characterize this valley. The first leap of the fall is made in a broad
curtain-like sheet of water, over the edges of hard bluish feldspathic
rock, which dips in a direction opposite to that of the stream. After
this descent of about twenty-five feet, the water boils and foams in a wide
rocky basin, till jostled together by the narrowing rocks into the throat
of a very narrow chasm, it falls a similar height between perpendicular
rocky walls, a mass of seething foam.

A considerable change in the character of the vegetation is noticed in

this valley. The forest is of a more mixed character, pines and spruces