Fiord-land of British Colombia
INTRODUCTION LOCATION AND SCENERY OF THE FIORD-LAND Between the forty-ninth and fifty-ninth parallels the mountainous western margin of North America meets the Pacific Ocean in a deeply indented, island-studded coast ranking with the grandest fiord-coasts of the world in the character and magnitude of its physical features. From the Strait of Juan de Fuca, separating the northwestern extremity of the State of Washington from Vancouver Island, to Cross Sound, dividing the Alexander Archipelago from the Alaskan mainland, the contrast between the elaborate fretwork of the coastland of British Columbia and southeastern Alaska and the simple sweep of the coasts to the south and to the northwest is already apparent on a world-map. To the traveler entering the “Inside Passage” to Alaska the change of scene is profoundly impressive: from the heaving wind-swept ocean he is carried into quiet protected waters bounded on the landward side by a steep, boldly sculptured . . .