

of Oregon and Upper California. 379 



opens through a passage one mile wide and five long, bounded 

 by high hills, and then expands east and south into two broad, 

 deep arms, each about thirty miles long and two to twelve miles 

 wide. The southern arm has the trend of the coast. North of 

 Francisco, there is a small bay at Bodega near 38° 20', another 

 called Gray's Harbor in 46° 50', and the entrance to the Colum- 

 bia in 46° 20'. The Columbia has a mouth seven miles in 

 width, and the waters within afford good anchorage though 

 reached by a somewhat difficult channel, which is wholly im- 

 passable in bad weather. 



It is thus seen that from the Californian peninsula to latitude 

 48°, the outline of the coast is comparatively even. We are es- 

 pecially struck with this unbroken character, when we consider 

 that the coast is closely bordered by high land, and thus differs 

 widely from the Atlantic side of the continent. 



North of 48°, there is a remarkable change in its features. In 

 the first place, the continent is abruptly narrowed one hundred 

 and fifty miles, and Vancouver's Island and others appear as the 

 exscinded fragments. Moreover, instead of a gently undulating 

 shore-line, the coast is cut through by a large number of narrow 

 channels, running far into the land, like the fiords of Norway, and 

 so deep and abrupt, that. large vessels may sail with their yards 

 amid the foliage of the shores, or rub their sides against their 

 rocky outline, before the keel touches bottom. These deep but 

 narrow channels have the most irregular forms, often extending 

 to a length of fifty or sixty miles, and by their intersections ma- 

 king a complete network of water, for internal navigation. On a 

 map, the intersecting channels look like a fringe to the coast 

 a fringe thirty to sixty miles broad. After entering the straits 

 of I)e Fuca, south of Vancouver's Island, and sailing one hun- 

 dred and fifty miles, some of these branching fiords extending 

 south are reached; and a vessel bound to Nisqually winds along 

 through Admiralty Inlet for another one hundred miles before 

 reaching that harbor. These still inland channels are often bound- 

 ed by lofty shores, sometimes rising into palisades, which are 

 densely covered with forests. 



These fiords prevail along the coast to the Russian settlements; 

 islands are also numerous along the whole distance, varying in size 

 from points of rock to the dimensions of Vancouver's, which 

 measures nearly three hundred miles in length, and averages forty 

 in breadth. The islands too have their deep fiords, especially on 



the oceanic side. 



It is interesting to observe in this connection, that similar fiords 

 occur upon nearly all coasts in corresponding high latitudes, while 

 at the same time, the world over, they are almost wholly absent 

 in the lower temperate and torrid zones. On Eastern America, 

 the coast is singularly even in its outline until approaching 



