American Forestry 



VOL XX MAY, 1914 No. 5 



16,000 MILES OF FORESTED SHORE 



LINE 



By E. A. Sterling 



THE steamer on the \ ancouver- on the east is a broken shore line with 



Prince Rupert run covers about thousands of large and small islands, 



550 miles, hi this same distance and an intricate system of protected 



there are about i6,ooo miles of channels extending far back into the 



forested coast line on the two shores mainland. The far background is a 



and around the islands of the inside wilderness of jagged mountains with 



channels. This is a distance appreciable ever-present snow-capped peaks and 



only by comparison. If connected and here and there the green hue of glacial 



straightened out it would give a shore ice. In the middle foreground of the 



line of magnificient forests and moun- shores the forests uniformly cover the 



tains two-thirds of the way around the lower slopes, save where the logging 



world, or from New York via Cape camps have taken their commercial toll. 



Horn, past New Zealand and Australia Evidences of man or civilization exist 



and almost to the Cape of Good Hope, only in the occasional camps of loggers. 



South Africa. salmon canneries and the Indian vil- 



The passenger from the deck of an lages. 



Alaska or Prince Rupert steamer on the If the tourist from an ocean-going 



inside route sees on this coast line a steamer on the regular course sees all 



panorama of mountains and forests un- this, and more, what is revealed to the 



equalled on any regular water course cruising launch which threads the nar- 



in the whole world. From the time the row channels and inside passages off 



steamer swings out through the narrow the regular route? The steamer view 



entrance of Vancouver Harbor and on shows an unparalleled view of moun- 



past Point Atkinson into the Strait of tains and glaciers, with the pointed, 



Georgia, a sky line of mountains and overhanging of Mt. Stephens peak a 



indented shores breaks the view on striking landmark ; the independent 



every side. A hundred miles north of cruising party sails at will through the 



Vancouver the wide sweep of water unfrequented waters, and back fifty to 



narrows into tide swept channels, and one hundred miles up deep water inlets 



for 120 miles until Queen Charlotte into the very heart of the mountains. 



Sound is reached, the ship is navigated and along the foot of the peaks and 



through passages which might be enor- glaciers, as on Kingcome Inlet, which 



mous salt water rivers, except that now comprise the units of the distant view, 



and then the channels widen or a Sound The tourist compares the west coast 



or Inlet gives a vista of miles of con- of British Columbia with the fjords of 



necting water running back into the Norway ; but anyone who gets the inti- 



west slopes of the Cascade Mountains, mate view, attempts no comparisons, 



On one side the shore of Vancouver since the knowledge is given that no 



Island rises abruptly to a mountain such magnificent combination of water 



chain of 3,000 to 5.000 feet, along the and shore exists anywhere. To com- 



foot of which the boat passes ; while plete the picture, imagine a region 



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