islands from Cumshewa Inlet southward to Cape St. James, and from
thence northward around the west and north coast to Massett, are
uniformly rock-bound, containing however, many stretches of fine,
sandy, or gravelly beaches. From Massett to Dead Tree Point, Moresby
Island, a distance by the coast line of about seventy-five miles, a
magnificent broad beach of white sand, extends the greater portion of
the way. The shores of Naden Harbor and Skidegate Inlet and channel
are also generally low and sandy. With the exception of the north and
eastern portion of Graham Island, the base of the mountains reaching
down to the sea, with only occasional narrow benches and gradual
foot-hill slopes. The highest elevations on the immediate coast, from
North Island east and southward to Cumshewa Inlet, Klas-kwun Point,
Tow Hill and Cape Ball of Moresby Island, do not exceed four hundred
feet. From thence to Cape St. James, there are several bold, rocky
bluffs, from three to eight hundred feet in height, but along the west
side of Moresby Island, between Henry Bay and Gold Harbor, the
mountains present, for considerable distances, an almost perpendicular
front of from one to two-thousand five hundred feet in height, and in
many places the mountains bordering the inlets to the northward, are
almost equally high and precipitous.

* * * * *

Passages, Inlets and Channels.

The principal islands of the group, as mentioned, are separated by
narrow water-ways, admitting the passage of the largest ships through
them, with the exception of the narrows of Skidegate Channel and
Inlet, navigable only for small vessels at flood tide. These are Parry
Passage, between North and Graham Islands, a mile-and-a-half in width,