Steep and often precipitous mountains, ranging in elevation from 800 to 4000 feet above the sea, rugged and rocky on their western slopes, densely covered with forests of spruce, hemlock and red cedar, extend from Skidegate to Cape St. James, and from Queen Charlotte Sound to the ocean, over all the islands, so far as my observation extended, except the comparatively small tracts as hereafter described. The small diameter of the islands south of Skidegate Channel leaves but little room at any point for an interior beyond the range of the human eye, when standing upon the summits of the highest mountains, after having traversed their shores. The latter are uniformly rock-bound, frequently bluff or precipitous for from 25 to 1500 feet, with generally very limited borders of level country, the base of the steep mountains reaching down to the sea, with but narrow foothill slopes. There are occasional short stretches of fine sandy beaches, especially on the bays and inlets. The streams flowing from the short water-sheds are small, but numerous, and without exception filled with fallen trees from near their mouth up. Their waters are generally rapid, clear and good. Trout are found in most of them, and a small, very excellent salmon is caught in considerable numbers in several of the largest. The rivers which I followed to their sources, rise in lakes and small swampy mountain basins. There are many good harbours for small boats, and several which afford perfect security at all times for large vessels on the eastern shores of the islands traversed. Of these, Copper Bay, Gray Bay, Laskeek Bay, Crescent Inlet, Sedgwick Bay, Werner Bay, Island Bay, George Bay, Collison Bay, Carpenter Bay, Provost Bay, Luxana Bay, and Seal Cove are the most important. On the west shore of the islands, though the harbor advantages are much more limited in number, they are believed to afford safe anchoring grounds for sloops and vessels of considerable size during the severest storms from any quarter. Henry and Bobson Inlets, Tasso and Gold Harbors, from twenty-five to thirty miles apart, are the largest and best harbors on this coast. There is, I judge, sufficient water at their entrances to admit deep-draught vessels.