American Forestry 



VOL XX 



MAY, 1914 



No. 5 



16,000 MILES OF FORESTED SHORE 



LINE 



E. A. STERLIN. 



THE steamer on the Yancouver- 

 Prince Rupert run covers about 

 550 miles. In tliis same distance 

 there are about 16,000 miles of 

 forested coast line on the two shores 

 and around the islands of the inside 

 channels. This is a distance appreciable 

 only by comparison. If connected and 

 straightened out it would give a shore 

 line of magnificient forests and moun- 

 tains two-thirds of the way around the 

 world, or from New York via Cape 

 Horn, past New Zealand and Australia 

 and almost to the Cape of Good Hope, 

 South Africa. 



The passenger from the deck of an 

 Alaska or Prince Rupert steamer on the 

 inside route sees on this coast line a 

 panorama of mountains and forests un- 

 equalled on any regular water course 

 in the whole world. From the time the 

 steamer swings out through the narrow 

 entrance of Vancouver Harbor and on 

 past Point Atkinson into the Strait of 

 Georgia, a sky line of mountains and 

 indented shores breaks the view on 

 every side. A hundred miles north of 

 Vancouver the wide sweep of water 

 narrows into tide swept channels, and 

 for 120 miles until Queen Charlotte 

 Sound is reached, the ship is navigated 

 through passages which might be enor- 

 mous salt water rivers, except that now 

 and then the channels widen or a Sound 

 or Inlet gives a vista of miles of con- 

 necting water running back into the 

 west slopes of the Cascade Mountains. 

 On one side the shore of Vancouver 

 Island rises abruptly to a mountain 

 chain of 3,000 to 5,000 feet, along the 

 foot of which the boat passes ; while 



on the east is a broken shore line with 

 thousands of large and small islands, 

 and an intricate system of protected 

 channels extending far back into the 

 mainland. The far background is a 

 wilderness of jagged mountains with 

 ever-present snow-capped peaks and 

 here and there the green hue of glacial 

 ice. In the middle foreground of the 

 shores the forests uniformly cover the 

 lower slopes, save where the logging 

 camps have taken their commercial toll. 

 Evidences of man or civilization exist 

 only in the occasional camps of loggers, 

 salmon canneries and the Indian vil- 

 lages. 



If the tourist from an ocean-going 

 steamer on the regular course sees all 

 this, and more, what is revealed to the 

 cruising launch which threads the nar- 

 row channels and inside passages off 

 the regular route? The steamer view 

 shows an unparalleled view of moun- 

 tains and glaciers, with the pointed, 

 overhanging of Mt. Stephens peak a 

 striking landmark; the independent 

 cruising party sails at will through the 

 unfrequented waters, and back fifty to 

 one hundred miles up deep water inlets 

 into the very heart of the mountains, 

 and along the foot of the peaks and 

 glaciers, as on Kingcome Inlet, which 

 comprise the units of the distant view. 

 The tourist compares the west coast 

 of British Columbia with the fjords of 

 Norway ; but anyone who gets the inti- 

 mate view, attempts no comparisons, 

 since the knowledge is given that no 

 such magnificent combination of water 

 and shore exists anywhere. To com- 

 plete the picture, imagine a region 



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