Tledoo is the name of a summer rendezvous of the sea-otter hunters of
Massett, situated about fifteen miles south of Cape Knox. We had
landed at Klik-a-doo, a short distance above, the only place visible
where the sea appeared not to be breaking, and in examining the coast
on foot several miles southward, discovered the tall pole which marks
the site of the three cabins of Tledoo. At first view, the sea seemed
to be breaking along the entire front, but a more careful examination
disclosed a narrow entrance between the rocks through which we were
able to enter a perfectly sheltered little canoe harbor with a fine
sandy beach at the landing place.
A strong south-east wind caused a very low tide the following day,
laying bare a sandstone flat about an eighth of a mile from the beach,
upon which black objects were visible. I had already found on the
shore opposite at high tide, large pieces of lignite coal and
petrified wood. Putting on my long boots, I soon discovered the base
trunks of hundreds of forest trees from one to six feet in length
extending as far out to sea as I could wade--some lying down and
formed into lignite coal, but the greater number standing and
petrified as hard as rock. The rocks along the north coast for
hundreds of miles, show unmistakable evidence of violent volcanic
action, and though the ocean has receded within the memory of Indians
now living, these islands are probably the mountain tops of a
submerged land, separated from the main body of the continent by the
sinking of the earth's surface.