Embraced in these islands aggregate but a few hundred acres,
principally lying in small tracts at the heads of bays and inlets,
mouths of streams, and on small benches at the base of the
mountains. Most of the richest spots appear to have been cultivated at
some time by the Indians for raising potatoes. The largest bodies of
cleared arable land seen, contained not exceeding twenty acres. There
are several thousand acres of lightly timbered spruce and alder lands,
bordering the bays, inlets and streams, which might be cleared and
brought under profitable cultivation for dairying and the raising of
root crops, should the development of the other resources of the
islands attract a sufficient population to create a home market for
such products.
The most available and desirable of the lands of this character
noticed, are situated upon Skidegate Inlet, Copper Bay, Alder Creek,
four miles south, Gray Bay, along the central portions of the south
shore of Cumshewa Inlet, Hutton Inlet, Henry and Robson Inlets, and on
the narrows of Skidegate Channel.