Vole Harbor, Admiralty Island, Alaska.
May 19 to June 10 1907.
This is a bay on the west side of Seymour Canal, about 20 miles south
of Windfall Harbor and 12 miles north of the entrance to the canal. It is
about 2 miles deep, by a mile and a half wide. Much of the inner end of
the bay runs dry at low tides. No one lives at the bay. It has considerable level land surrounding it. South and southwest of the bay are several
high mountains; one being among the highest on the island. Three miles west
of the bay a chain of lakes begins. These drain into a stream flowing out
on the opposite side of the island. Southwest of the bay about four miles
is a level tract of land that is known locally as the beaver meadows. It is
surrounded by high mountains. Formerly a colony of beavers lived there but
the Indians have exterminated them.
The principal timber is "hemlock", but there is some fir, and in the hills
there are cedar and pine trees. The cedar is yellow cedar and the pine is
probably Pinus contorta. It is known locally as "jack pine". Most of these
trees grow in what Hasselborg calls "parks". These are tracts of more
open country; the trees being fewer and smaller. These parks are carpeted
with moss, like all the region, but in some of the parks a species of
grass grows among the moss, even predominating here and there. If level
these parks are wet and swampy, but on sloping ground they are comparatively dry. There appear to be species of plants in the parks that are not met
with elsewhere, such as the low cranberry, but their growth is not far enough advanced to give much of an idea of what the species are. There
are more birds in these parks than elsewhere except along the beach. Deer
frequent them also.
Mole Harbor is not as good a place for collecting sea birds as Windfall
Harbor. For land work it is better, particularly if the lakes are included.
It is somewhat warmer, and the season opens earlier.
Fannie Smith