MecONNELL, | FINLAY RIVER. 15 ¢

‘separates the Ospica from the Finlay. The latter is overlooked, farther
to the east, by the peaks and ridges of the main range of the Rocky
Mountains.

The depression in which the Finlay flows, is floored with a varying
thickness of sands, clays and gravels, forming a forested plain, in
which the river has cut a valley to a depth of about a hundred feet.
No rock is exposed along this part of the river. The material shown
in the banks of the valley contains numerous scratched and polishe
pebbles and boulders, and is evidently of glacial origin, but appears in
some instances to have been redistributed. Above the straight reach
just described, on to Fort Grahame, a distance of about twenty-one
miles in a straight line, the Finlay becomes more tortuous and is
obstructed by islands and bars, the river being frequently divided
‘into half a dozen different channels.

Drift-piles are everywhere present. They occur at the heads of all
the bars and islands, and, alternating from one bank to the other, form
in places an almost continuous line along the river. The drift-wood
is derived from the washing away of the forested flats bordering the
river, and the enormous amount carried down during high water each
year measures the destructive power of the stream. Rapid changes
in the course of the river are notable features in this reach, the main
channel of one season being often represented in the next by a scarcely
used slough.

Near Fort Grahame, the mountains on the west, approach close to
the river and sections of limestone and gneiss are exposed. An as-
cent of the range east of the fort was made on August 10th. The
river is bordered on the east by a series of scarps and terraces rising
up to a height of 275 feet with a width of about three miles.
The main terrace has a height of 175 feet above the river and is
thickly wooded with black pine. Near the mountains the pine is
replaced by white spruce. The lower slopes of the mountain are well
forested up to a height of 2000 feet above the river, but above that
elevation the trees gradually thin out, and a thousand feet higher up
they cease altogether. The elevation of the timber-line in this district
is approximately 5200 feet above the sea. From the point ascended,
the valley of the Finlay could be followed southward to the mouth of
the Omenica and northward could be seen stretching out ina nearly
straight direction for over sixty miles, or as far as the eye could pierce
the haze. In all this distance it preserves a nearly uniform width of
from four to six miles. Looking up the valley, the most striking
object in view was a range of mountains about forty miles distant,

Finlay Valley.

Absence of

d rock expos-
ures.

Drift-piles.

Ascent of
mountain at
Fv. Grahame.

Elevation of
timber. line.