REPORT BY GEORGE M. DAWSON. 43

well developed, in many instances at elevations of 200 to 300 feet above
the river. A large stream twenty-five feet by six inches, slope one in
200, enters the river at its angle, flowing from the east. Up its valley,
at a distance of three or four miles, is a remarkable step-shaped moun-
tain, which can be seen from Na-tal-kuz Lake. It forms a portion of the
broken country of the western ridges of the Telegraph Range, which
running athwart the course of the Nechacco at this place, with a nearly
north and south direction, causes it to double back on itself.

Beyond the first great bend, the river becomes swifter and more con-
tracted, with rapids at intervals, the sound of some of which was heard
while travelling through the thickly wooded country above. Six miles
lower, where the bank was again approached, the stream was found
plunging onward over rocks and between small rocky islands, with cliffs
about 100 feet high at its sides. These are composed of thick beds of
basaltic and other igneous rocks, inclined at low angles, and underlaid by
softer Tertiary beds near the water line. A terrace still continues to
appear at a height of about 200 feet above the water. (See Plate IV.)

The windfall in this part of the river valley became so impenetrable
that we were obliged to leave it and strike north-eastward across the
plateau above, which was found to be not much better. A north and
south valley here runs some miles east of that of the main stream, bear-
ing much the same relation to it as the string to a bow, and holding a
small stream, with wide marshy beaver-meadows and remains of beaver
dams. This runs northward, and has been followed at one time by an
Indian trail, of which traces remain, but which has evidently been
abandoned for a long time. The surface of the plateau is broken and
rugged, with small outlying hills of basaltic rocks. There is, however,
good feed for animals along the creek, though the general surface of the
plateau offers little grazing even in the swamps, and is quite unfit for
agriculture. I subsequently wrote to Mr. Hunter, mentioning the
existence of the valley of this stream, which was named Cut-off Brook,
and suggesting it as a possible means of avoiding the bend and bad work
on this part of the Nechacco, in the railway line. It was, I believe,
afterwards surveyed.

Beyond the mouth of Cut-off Brook, the Nechacco valley continues for
about eight miles in a north-eastward course ina moderately broad valley,
with benches at 200 to 300 feet above the water level. These are now
found to be composed of fine greyish arenaceous clay, pretty hard when
dry, but evidently subject to extensive slides during the wet season. It
is an extension of the white silt deposit, afterwards found so largely

Nechacco canon.

Benches of
white silt.

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