Here, in spite of northern latitudes, the warm airs coming up from the Pacific Ocean act somewhat in the same way as the Gulf Stream on north-west Europe, and favour the growth of magnificent forests.
All this north-western part of British Columbia is very mountainous, and the rocks are rich in minerals, especially gold in the Fraser and Columbia Rivers, far north in the upper valley of the Yukon, and copper and coal in Vancouver Island.
The rainfall in British Columbia is considerable, and the flora--trees, plants, ferns--richer than anywhere else in North America, with many resemblances to the trees and plants of Japan and northern China.

In British Columbia more than in any other part of the world are found the noblest developments of the pines, firs, and junipers (_Coniferae_).
The coast rivers swarm with salmon, and perhaps because of the abundance of sea fish close in shore there have been developed in the course of ages those remarkable aquatic mammals, the sea lions or fur seals (_Otaria_), whose relationship to the true seals is a very distant one.

On the Alaskan coasts and islands is _Otaria ursina_, the creature which provides the sealskin fur of commerce.

There is also the much larger sea lion (_Otaria stelleri_), on the coasts of British Columbia and Vancouver Island.

Alexander Henry, jun., gives some interesting facts about this remarkable beast.
"The natives at Oak Point, during the time Mr.Keith was there, killed five very large sea lions by spearing them at night.