REPORT BY GEORGE M. DAWSON. 30

passed by him eighty-four years ago, just one day later in the month of
July than the date of our visit.

The country to the south of our route is broken, with rocky hills, and
one remarkable snowy range, rising probably 700 feet above the general
level, forms the northern brink of the Bella Coola Valley. To the
north the surface rises in steps—marking the various basalt flows—to the
higher peaks and broken remnants of plateaus, which form the summits
of the Tsi-tsutl Range,

The country travelled over is lightly timbered with groves of the
species mentioned yesterday, and though very stony in places, shows some
grass on the slopes, and occasional fine meadows. Camped in a wide
valley with flats covered with beautiful grass, through which the Tsed-
a-kul-ko River (Cheddakulk of Palmer’s Survey of the Bella Coola Val-
ley) flows.

We nearly lost, in a stony torrent to-day, one of the pack mules,
carrying camera and collection of plants besides part of food. The
larger streams met with were as follows:—Branches of the Ne-ti-kun-as-
ko :—torrent fifteen feet by two feet; stream fifteen feet by one foot;
slope, one in twenty-five; main branch on issuing from Si-ka-ta-pa Lake,
with the addition of the last named, thirty feet by five feet, torrent.
Brook joining upper part of main stream, twelve feet by two feet; slope,
one in ten; main stream, near its source, six feet by six inches, swift.
Branches of the Tsed-a-kul-ko :—west branch (Tsan-tsal-ko), twenty-five
feet by two feet, slope, one in twenty; main stream, forty feet by two
feet, one in ten. All these streams are now full of water from the
melting snows of the higher portions of the range.

July 17.—Made about fourteen miles eastward, most of the way through
open country like that before described, with many swamps and lakes
of small size. On gradually descending from the south-eastern flank of
the Tsi-tsutl Range, the timber becomes thicker. Pinus contorta and
Abies Engelmanni preponderating, though at first rather scrubby.
Swamps and meadows with much good grass still, however, occur
abundantly. Camped on the bank of a large brook or small river called
the Tus-ul-ko, here thirty feet by three feet, with gentle current, a
tributary of the Salmon River, at an elevation of about 4,234 feet. Saw
little snow to-day, even when travelling at a high altitude in the morn-
ing, a fact showing that the influence of the coast range in causing
great precipitation diminishes very rapidly eastward. This we after-
wards found still more markedly on the I[l-ga-chuz Range, where the
limit of sturdy growth of trees is considerably higher, and the vegetation

Character of
country.

Streams flowing.
to Bella Coola

Descend toward
Na-coont-loon.

Causes of great
snow-fall.