30

the general level, and containing immediately below the water
surface a flocculent mass of brown decayed vegetable matter,
thickening with depth. The depth of these pools is considerable,
and it is easy to thrust a pole down 10 feet or more in many of
them. It is common to find the water in pools not 5 feet apart
standing at levels varying by as much as a foot, owing apparently
to the impermeable character of the peaty material. These
muskegs, constantly wet as they are, do not allow of rapid walk-
ing, but are preferable as routes for trails to the unbroken
forest, as the surface is smooth and the impediments of roots
and underbrush are lacking. The muskegs are, without doubt,
caused by the moist, equable climate, permitting a very rapid
growth of vegetation. Some of these open spaces are almost
half a mile in diameter, and their wind-swept appearance on a
stormy day is desolate and forbidding. In fine weather, how-
ever, they form a welcome interlude to the monotony of the
forest.

Valleys.

A marked north-south depression runs the length of Graham
island; in the north it is submerged, and forms Masset inlet;
farther south it is occupied by the Yakoun river, and in the south
by the Honna valley. This trench is believed to date back to
pre-Cretaceous times, as it is largely occupied by basins of
Cretaceous sediments. The depression is at present not a single
valley, but is occupied by the valleys of several streams, and
while it forms a single depression, its topography is quite diversi-
fed.

The Honna river occupies a wide valley, carved from the
soft, sandy shales of the Lower Cretaceous sediments on the
gently folded eastern limb of the major syncline of the Honna
basin, the course of the stream being closely parallel to the
strike of the beds. The river itself flows in a narrow trench,
in places 150 feet deep and almost canyon-like in some parts.
The river was initiated by a more recent uplift than that which
caused the main valley to be formed. Its fallin the last 4 miles
of its course, from near Fourmile camp to the inlet, is 270 feet,
but in its upper reaches the rate of fall is not so great, and the